Wilson Okereke, Afikpo
An articulated vehicle believed to be laden with petroleum products has crushed a 22-year-old woman, Mrs. Oluchi Nwoba, to death in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.
The incident, Daily Sun gathered, happened at about 9:45pm on Monday, while the deceased and her husband, Peter Nwoba with their son were riding home on a motorbike from their shop.
A witness, Mr. Chigbo Nwenu, said the family was on the bike waiting for the traffic signal at the Onuebonyi Junction when the truck driver who was driving on the wrong lane knocked them down.
“The driver was so reckless that he neither observed road signs nor maintained his lane until he crushed the family. Mrs. Nwoba died instantly, while her husband and son, Ebubechukwu, sustained severe injuries,” said the witness.
Nwenu explained that the driver’s recklessness provoked some youths in the area to set the vehicle ablaze.
Brother-in-law to the deceased, Mr. John Nwoba, said he was at home when he received a distress call around 10pm that his sibling, wife and child were involved in a road accident as they were returning home after their daily business activities.
He said he rushed to the scene only to discover that Oluchi was already dead while the survivors were rushed to the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki. He said the corpse of Mrs. Nwoba had been deposited at the morgue.