Tragedy struck yesterday in Warri, Delta State as 13 persons, including children perished in a mid-day auto accident on the busy Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) Road, Effurun.
The incident described as the worst in recent times, caused pandemonium in the thickly populated area.
It was gathered that a 18-seater bus, tagged: Uduaghan Warri Township, involved in the accident and some of its passengers burnt beyond recognition. Only five escaped death with burns.
Sources said the vehicle which was coming from the PTI Roundabout with passengers, had stopped to carry one unidentified woman, who was allegedly carrying a jerry can of fuel.
A survivor, Martins Nwaowolo, who spoke with Daily Sun inside an ambulance, confirmed that there were 18 passengers including children and pregnant woman.
“When the driver stopped along the road, a woman carrying jerry can entered, but after less that two minutes, the jerry can burst into flames and everybody struggled to come out, but only myself, the driver and two others including a pregnant woman who was rushed to the hospital and the bus conductor suffered serious burns,” said Nwaowolor.
But an operation officer with Agofure Motors, Mr. Chamberlin Igedebor, said a mob attacked some of the company’s vehicles that came after the accident.
However, the state Commissioner for Transport, Ben Igbakpa, who was at the scene of the accident wondered why anybody would carry a can filled with fuel inside the vehicle.
Igbakpa, who described the incident as sad and horrifying, said it was abnormal for passengers to enter any vehicle with fuel or other dangerous things.
“We have to do a lot of monitoring to enlighten the public on the dangers of carrying fuel and other inflammable things into a vehicle,” said the commissioner.
It took the combined efforts of policemen, soldiers and Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC) members to bring out the charred bodies of the victims.
0 comments:
Post a Comment