Five bus passengers have died as well as others injured following an auto crash involving two vehicles in Kogi State.
The mishap ensued after one of the drivers attempted an overtaking of the other in a reckless manoeuvring which led to a loss of control, an occurrence which caused unrest at the scene.
A witness, Abimaje Yahaya, said that a driver of a Toyota Avensis with registation number BJK 172 LG, while trying the overtaking on high speed, suddenly noticed another vehicle approaching from the other direction, and crashed into a truck with Registration number BBR 719 SA.
The accident occurred around 11:35 a.m. along the Ajaokuta–Lokoja Road in Kogi State, precisely at Gidan Bassa, a community on the outskirts of Lokoja.
Confirming the incident, the Kogi State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Tenimu Etuku, who said that the crash happened at the Ajaokuta-Lokoja Road at about 11:35am on Wednesday, blamed the crash on excessive speeding and wrongful overtaking. He disclosed that the car was conveying 12 occupants, including the driver.
“Five passengers died instantly, while seven others sustained critical injuries,” Etuku said, adding that two of the deceased were children.
According to the FRSC, the injured victims were rushed to Ekpe Hospital in Ganaja–Lokoja, ASCO Hospital in Ajaokuta, and the Specialist Hospital in Lokoja for urgent medical care, while the bodies of the deceased were also deposited at medical facilities.
Meanwhile, items recovered from the scene, including mobile phones, passengers’ luggage, and the two vehicles involved, were handed over to the police for further investigation.
Etuku, however, cautioned motorists to adhere strictly to traffic regulations, stressing that speeding and wrongful overtaking remain major causes of avoidable deaths on Nigerian roads.
