Not less than 13 persons were confirmed dead on Wednesday while 12 others sustained injuries in an accident involving an unregistered Volvo truck and a commercial Mazda bus opposite a roofing and pipes company on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway in Nigeria.
The Public Relations Officer, Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE ), Babatunde Akinbiyi, confirmed the incident to newsmen in Abeokuta.
Akinbiyi noted the commercial bus driver wrongly overtook an ongoing vehicle, which led to the loss of control, saying that the bus rammed into a broken-down waste disposal truck.
He stated that 12 people which comprised five men, three women and four minors were injured while 13 persons comprising four male, five female and four minors died in the accident.
“We learnt the commercial bus was coming from Lagos, when it overtook the vehicle at its front wrongly, before ramming into a stationed vehicle at the roadside killing nine persons in the vehicle on the spot.
“The remaining four died at Idera Hospital where they had been taken to by TRACE and Federal Road Safety Corps officials.
Akinbiyi explained that the injured victims were rescued at Idera hospital while the deceased were deposited at the same hospital mortuary in Sagamu, saying the vehicles had been towed to Sagamu Police station.
“TRACE Corps will continue to insist that the roadside is not a mechanic workshop where cars should be parked or repaired for whatever fault because of its attendant consequences,” he said.