No fewer than twelve persons lost their lives while eight others were injured when a Ford commercial bus collided with a Volvo truck along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on Saturday.
The accident which occurred around 12.25pm at Fidiwo/Ogunmakin axis close to the Foursquare Church camp.
It occurred in a section where there was a diversion of traffic to a single lane, due to the ongoing construction work on the road.
The 18-seater commercial bus with the number plate AAA 886 XR was travelling to Ibadan, while the Volvo truck LSD 138 XQ was on its way to Lagos.
According to the Public Relations Officer, Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps, Babatunde Akinbiyi, the accident was due to wrongful overtaking on the part of the driver of the commercial bus.
He said, “The driver of the commercial bus was reported by our men to have made wrongful overtaking. He had pulled out from the lane in an attempt to overtake other vehicles ahead of him, and due to wrong calculation, his bus collided with the Volvo truck coming on its own lane from the opposite direction.
He said the twelve passengers that died were inside the commercial bus.
“The accident led to the deaths of twelve persons while eight others sustained varying degrees of injuries. Among the eight who were injured, six were passengers on the ill-fated bus, while the remaining two were inside the Volvo truck.
He said the corpses of the victims had been deposited at a private mortuary at Ipara, while the injured were also deceiving treatment in a private hospital at Ogunmakin, all in Ogun State.
The Ogun State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Clement Oladele, also confirmed the accident and the number of casualties.
Akinbiyi and Oladele warned the motoring public to drive with caution on the highway, especially where construction was ongoing.
Two other fatal accidents were said to have occurred along the Abeokuta-Kobape-Siun-Sagamu Expressway, but the details were still sketchy. (Punch)
