At least five persons were confirmed dead while four others sustained varying degrees of injuries in three separate accidents which occurred across Ogun State between Friday night and early hours of Saturday morning.
The first accident, which claimed the lives of three persons, occurred around 10pm Friday night in the popular Lafenwa axis of Abeokuta metropolis of the state capital and it involved a diesel fuel-laden tanker marked: T- 15321 LA, which rammed in a BMW Saloon car with registration number: TTD 421 CX and a black-coloured NISSAN JEEP with no registration number on it.
The second lone crash, however, occurred Saturday morning when a granite-laden Howo truck, with registration number WDE 209 XC, driving on high speed, ran into the evacuation team working on the first crash at the Totoro Junction of Abeokuta metropolis, just few meters away from the scene of the first crash.
The third accident, which occurred around 05:40 hrs Saturday morning around Mallo, along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, involved a Volvo truck with registration number: RBH 420 XA and a Nissan Cabster pick-up marked: YYY 486 XB.
The duo of the Public Education Officer (PEO) for Ogun State Sector Command of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Florence Okpe, and the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement agency (TRACE), Babatunde Akinbiyi, who confirmed the multiple accidents to LEADERSHIP, explained that the crashes occurred as a result of over-speeding and dangerous driving.
In her own account of the first crash, the FRSC’s spokesperson Okpe explained that, “the tanker driver was trying to make a turning at the Roundabout at Lafenwa, rammed into two other vehicles, then lost control into a building. The content was spilled but no fire outbreak.”
Akinbiyi, in his own account of the second crash, explained that the “driver of the granite-laden truck was injured and also attacked by street urchins, who accused him of driving recklessly into a crash scene while rescue operation was ongoing.”
“He (Truck driver) is presently in the custody of the Police at the Enu-Gada Divisional Headquarters in Abeokuta metropolis,” he added.
Meanwhile, the duo of Okpe and Akinbiyi further disclosed that corpses of the victims have been evacuated to the morgues, while the injured victims, earlier trapped under the trucks have equally been rescued to the Federal Medical Center (F.M.C), Idi-Aba, Abeokuta, the state capital for treatment.
