20 die in Kaduna-Abuja road mishap

It was tragedy as 20 people died in a motor accident along Kaduna-Abuja expressway on Sunday.The Sector Commander of the Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC) in Kaduna State, Umar Ibrahim, said the accident occurred around 7 p.m. at Dutse U-turn, 22 kilometres from Kaduna metropolis. It involved a white DAF articulated vehicle with registration number AJG118XA and a white Toyota Haice bus marked XA866MLF.

According to him, the 16-seater bus going to the southern part of the country was overloaded with 30 passengers, 29 males and a female. The accident occurred when the truck that was coming from Abuja tried to make a u-turn at Dutse. The bus coming from Kaduna rammed into it, killing 17 people instantly.
“Ten other passengers sustained injuries and were rushed to the hospital by an FRSC official, where three of them later died,” Ibrahim told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

The sector commander said the truck was going to evacuate cows from a broken down truck close to the scene of the accident.“The bus was not only overloaded with passengers, it was also choked with dismembered motorcycles belonging to the passengers,” he said.

The accident caused traffic jam that lasted for about four hours. “We have to divert traffic to single lane before we were able to clear the wreckage and restore free flow of traffic.”

An eyewitness, Kabiru Mohammed, said he was on his way to Abuja when he came across the accident.“Initially I thought it was an armed robbery in progress, because I saw motorists turning back and taking the other lane. I later saw the articulated vehicle by the u-turn that obstructed traffic.

“On getting there after I took the other lane, I saw people lying dead, while FRSC officials were trying to take the injured to the hospital. It was really a terrible sight,” Mohammed said.