From Tony Osauzo, Benin
It was tears and sorrow yesterday as road accidents claimed 15 lives in Arue-Uromi and Agbede, Edo State. This is as another 15 souls were killed in a separate road crash in Borno State.
The Arue-Uromi accident reportedly provoked anger as the six casualty involved, four girls and two boys were said to be children of one family.
One account of the incident said the children were crossing the road while another said they were playing football when an approaching Mercedes Benz car in an attempt to dodge a pothole, swerved and killed them.
It was learnt that the incident immediately provoked rage from residents of the area who blocked the road and burnt the car.
The Agbede accident which was said to be a multiple crash involving a petrol tanker, a Sienna bus and two other vehicles, reportedly claimed nine lives, eight males and one female.
Unspecified number of other passengers were also said to have sustained injuries.
Edo State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Henry Benameisia, who confirmed the accident, attributed it to break failure on the part of the tanker as well as over speeding by the Sienna bus driver.
Meanwhile, no fewer than 15 persons have been sent to their early graves in a fatal motor accident involving two buses along the Maiduguri – Damaturu road on Friday.
The Borno Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr Sanusi Ibrahim, confirmed the development yesterday in Maiduguri.
Ibrahim said the accident occurred near Mainok village of Kaga Local Government Area and that all the corpses had been taken to the General Hospital Beneshiek, the headquarters of Kaga local government.
“I just got the report from our unit in Beneshiek that two sharon buses carrying 15 passengers including the drivers were involved in a fatal collision and that all the 15 people in the two buses died. It involved seven males and eight females,” Ibrahim said.
According to him, the driver of one of the buses lost control because of a burst tyre leading to the collision. He urged motorists to always observe speed limit and other road safety regulations to minimise such fatal accidents.