No fewer than 20 people died in a fatal motor accident along Kaduna-Abuja Express way on Sunday night.
The Sector Commander of the Federal Roads Safety Corps in Kaduna State, Umar Ibrahim, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday that the accident occurred around 7 p.m. at Dutse U-turn, 22 kilometres from Kaduna metropolis.
Ibrahim said the accident involved a white DAF articulated vehicle with registration number: AJG118XA and a white Toyota HAICE bus with number plate XA866MLF.
He said that the 16-seater bus was overloaded with 30 passengers, 29 males and a female going to the southern part of the country.
According to him, the accident occurred when the bus coming from Kaduna axis rammed into the truck which was coming from Abuja and was trying to make a U-turn at Dutse and killed 17 people instantly.
“Ten others sustained injuries and were rushed to the hospital by an FRSC official, where three of them also died.”
The sector commander said that the truck was going to evacuate cows from a broken down truck closed to the accident scene.
He said that the number of the death was high because the bus was extremely overloaded.
His words: “The bus was not only overloaded with passengers but also choked with dismembered motorcycles belonging to the passengers.”
He said that the accident caused a traffick gridlock that lasted about four hours, saying, “we had to divert traffic to single lane before we were able to clear the wreckage and allow free flow of traffic.”
An eye witness, Kabiru Mohammed, told NAN that he was on his way to Abuja when he came across the accident.
“Initially I thought it was armed robbery in progress, because I saw motorists turning back and taking the other lane, before I saw the articulated vehicle by the u-turn that obstructed traffic.
“On getting there after I took the other lane, I saw a lot of people lying dead, while FRSC officials were trying to take the injured to the hospital.
“It was really a terrible sight, “Mohammed said.