No fewer than 15 lives were reportedly lost in a multiple auto accident involving a trailer and another vehicle in the Oko Olowo area of the Ilorin-Jebba Expressway in Kwara State.
Our correspondent gathered that several others sustained varying degrees of injury in the Wednesday auto crash.
According to eyewitness accounts, the accident involved two vehicles: a trailer with registration number AYE 218 XC which collided with another commercial vehicle with registration number TTN 556 XA.
The two vehicles, according to the account, were travelling in opposite directions when they had the head-on collision on Wednesday evening.
It was gathered that one of the two vehicles involved in the accident was transporting cows and human passengers from Ilorin, Kwara State capital to Ogbomoso, Oyo State, while the trailer was said to be travelling from Lagos to Kano.
Our correspondent learnt that emergency responders and police officers from the ‘G’ Division Police Command, Oloje, arrived at the scene on time to take control of the situation, while the injured victims were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Bodies of the deceased victims were seen in a viral video circulating in the state around 9 pm on the day of the incident with corpses of the victims scattered on the road.
The state command of the Federal Road Safety Corps had yet to issue an official statement on the accident since it happened, except for the confirmation this correspondent got through a telephone interview with a top official in the state.
TheNigerian Metro however gathered that the cause of the accident might not be unconnected with reckless driving and excessive speeding on the road.
A video of the incident recorded by one of the rescuers made available to our correspondent shows the truck that fell on its side with over 10 corpses littered on the road.
A voice could be heard calling on the government to take drastic measures to halt the frequent accidents on that corridor that had claimed several lives lately.
A senior officer of the FRSC, Kwara State Command, who preferred not to be quoted, said that 15 people died in the multiple crashes while three were injured.
But the FRSC sector commander, Muftau Irekeola, confirmed the incident, in a telephone chat on Thursday, saying, “But, I am still waiting for the details from my boys in Olooru unit.
“That we have 15 casualties may not be far from the truth but I am still waiting for details.
“I am waiting for the details from my boys. It was a multiple accident involving a trailer and one Canter truck”, Irekeola said.
