Auto Crash on Ife-Ibadan Expressway Leaves 5 Dead

An auto crash along Ife-Ibadan expressway has left 5 persons dead and many others wounded.

In the accident which occurred around 7am on Tuesday, many people secured varying degrees of injuries.

It was gathered that the accident happened when a truck hit a bus at Akinlalu junction, Osun State.

The bus which was hit, eyewitnesses said, later collided with two other buses.

The vehicles involved were Toyota Previa car with plate identification as Osun, FDY 53XA; Futon Truck, Lagos, EPE 852 XQ; and Nissan truck, Lagos, KSF 530 XQ.

It was gathered that the Nissan truck had wood planks on it, while the number of the trailer that crushed the Previa car is blocked.

It was also learnt that the three of the survivors in the accident were immediately rushed to the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex (OAUTHC), Ile-Ife.

When contacted, the Ife Unit Commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Alhassan Abu, confirmed that five people lost their lives.

He said that several others  sustained various degrees of injuries.

He said, “Those that sustained serious injuries have been carried to OAUTHC receiving medical treatment. The body of the deceased were being deposited at hospital mortuary.”

A FRSC official at the scene of the accident, Aderibigbe Odogiyan, said the auto crash was as a result of the bad road.

Odogiyan, who is the Head of Operation, Ife FRSC, said, “The lack of good roads that led the drivers to passed one way. What happened was that the dew that covered up the cloud did not allow the drivers to see clearly and instead for them to emphasise patient, they did not.

“We have been warning drivers severally against passing one way on expresses, but they won’t listen to advice, for majority of them  drove recklessly.”

He subsequently urged road users to desist from speeding, wrong overtaking, overloading, driving when drunk.

Narrating his ordeal, the driver of the Futon truck, Mr. Akeem Olatunji, said, “I  narrowly escaped death. In fact, I don’t know how I escaped. I just suddenly noticed that a Toyota previa car coming from Ibadan ran into an a trailer carried planks from Ife axis. And I heard the sound of vehicles hitting ourselves.

“I ran for my life. I didn’t count the number of people that died.”

A transporter along th Ife-Ibadan expressway, who identified himself Agbara, said that “I was going to Lagos when I saw the accident. Many people died. The truck was passing one-way while but I don’t know where the other buses faced.

“People need to be careful when travelling along that junction. The other side is bad and we have to manage just the good one.”

When our correspondent visited the survivors, health assistants said the survivors were in critical conditions.

They told our correspondent that the survivors were rushed into the accident ward of the university around 9.30am.

“Please, please you can’t see them now. They can’t answer any question from you. They are in critical condition,” one of the said.