Tragedy: Road mishap claims 11 lives, leaves 8 injured

Stephanie Clems, Umuahia

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Abia State Sector command has confirmed the death of 11 persons in a road accident at Arongwa Village, opposite Arab Contractors Construction Company on Port Harcourt-Enugu Expressway on 14 August 2024.

The accident which occurred at 12:45hrs also left 8 others injured.

A Nissan Caravan commercial bus with registration number SSM 320 ZR, colour white conveying 19 persons (8 male adults and 11 female adults and headed to Enugu rammed into a HOWO commercial truck with registration number T2828LA colour yellow, causing the devastation.

The FRSC in Abia state through a press statement disclosed that a combined rescue team from FRSC RS 9.31 Aba and RS 9.32 km78 Aba unit commands arrived the scene of the accident “within 5 minutes of notice and conducted rescue operations.”

The statement signed by the corps commander, Ngozi Ekeoma also revealed that as of the time of the accident, 10 persons (5 male adults and 5 female adults) were injured while 9 persons (4 male adults and 5 female adults) died on the spot.

The statement further reads: “

The injured victims were taken to the hospital in Aba, while the the dead victims were taken to the Mortuary in Aba.During a hospital follow up, on the crash victims, it was discovered that one male adult and one female adult died this evening, while one of the victims was referred to Federal Medical Center Umuahia.”

The FRSC sector command has also blamed the accident on excessive speeding saying “Preliminary investigation revealed that the cause of the crash was excessive speed.”

Within one week, two fatal accidents have occurred on the Abia axis of Enugu/portharcourt expressway.