19 die in Kogi road accident

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) declared 19 people dead in a road accident at Okene bypass, on the Okene-Lokoja highway in Kogi State on Sunday.

FRSC spokesman, Jonas Agwu, said the Corps’ emergency rescue teams endured another over 3 hours of inferno in their bid to rescue road traffic victims at the scene of the fatal crash.

“The FRSC emergency rescue teams deployed to rescue the victims could not achieve desired results as the efforts they put into the rescue operations was unduly hindered by the fire inferno that engulfed the two vehicles,” Agwu said.

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“The crash investigation report revealed that it involved two vehicles comprising of a Dangote Truck bearing the following registration details NSH680YJ, and a Toyota Hiace Bus with registration number KMC455ZE.”

Agwu said the TYT bus loaded from Kano was on its lane on the highway when the Dangote Truck driver who drove from Port Harcourt wrongfully overtook a vehicle and collided head-on with the bus.

The impact of the collision was said to have resulted in a fire that burnt the victims to death.

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According to Agwu, the crash which was caused by route violation ‘One Way’ and wrongful overtaking, involved 22 people, all male.

“Unfortunately, 19 people out of the 22 victims were killed and one injured,” the FRSC spokesman said.

Agwu said the corpses of the dead victims have been deposited at Okene General Hospital.