Thirteen persons, including
children have died in a mid-day auto accident on the busy Petroleum
Training Institute (PTI) Road, Effurun, Warri, Delta State.
It was gathered that a 18-seater bus, tagged: Uduaghan Warri Township,
involved in the accident and some of its passengers burnt beyond
recognition. Only five escaped death with burns.
Sources said the vehicle which was coming from the PTI Roundabout with
passengers, had stopped to carry one unidentified woman, who was
allegedly carrying a jerry can of fuel.
A survivor, Martins Nwaowolo, who spoke with Daily Sun inside an
ambulance, confirmed that there were 18 passengers including children
and pregnant woman.
“When the driver stopped along the road, a woman carrying jerry can
entered, but after less that two minutes, the jerry can burst into
flames and everybody struggled to come out, but only myself, the driver
and two others including a pregnant woman who was rushed to the hospital
and the bus conductor suffered serious burns,” said Nwaowolor.
But an operation officer with Agofure Motors, Mr. Chamberlin Igedebor,
said a mob attacked some of the company’s vehicles that came after the
accident.
However, the state Commissioner for Transport, Ben Igbakpa, who was at
the scene of the accident wondered why anybody would carry a can filled
with fuel inside the vehicle.
Igbakpa, who described the incident as sad and horrifying, said it was
abnormal for passengers to enter any vehicle with fuel or other
dangerous things.
“We have to do a lot of monitoring to enlighten the public on the
dangers of carrying fuel and other inflammable things into a vehicle,”
said the commissioner.
It took the combined efforts of policemen, soldiers and Federal Road
Safety Corp (FRSC) members to bring out the charred bodies of the
victims.
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