From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has said 19 persons lost their lives in the fatal road crash in Okene-Lokoja highway Kogi State, which involved 22 people.
FRSC Public Education Officer, Assistant Corps Marshal Jonas Agwu, in a statement yesterday, said the incident was caused by route violation popularly known as ‘one way’ and wrongful overtaking.
He said investigation revealed that the crash involved 2 vehicles comprising of a Dangote Truck bearing the following registration details NSH680YJ, and a Toyota Hiace Bus with registration number KMC455ZE.
Also, he said the Toyota Hiace Bus loaded from Kano was on its lane on the highway when the Dangote Truck driver who drove all the way from Port Harcourt wrongfully overtook a vehicle and collided head-on with the bus, adding that the impact of the collision resulted in a fire inferno that burnt the victims to death.
Agwu noted that the Corps Emergency Rescue Teams endured over 3 hours of inferno in their bid to rescue the victims.
“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 1 injured. The remaining 2 victims who got rescued by FRSC operatives without injuries survived the crash because they complied with traffic regulations on compulsory use of seatbelt.
“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,” he said.