Many persons were reportedly crushed to death in Anambra State on Tuesday, following the crash of a trailer conveying cement to a destination.
The incident, which occured at about 9:55am, happened along the Agulu-Agwubu Road that passes through the ever-busy Eke Awgbu Market in Orumba North Local Government Area of the State.
Videos from the scene of the crash, which have gone viral on the social media, show corpses of some of the victims buried in the cement, as crowd of traders and other sympathizers who gathered were seen bewailing the unfortunate incident, while also helping to evacuate the corpses and rescue the survivors.
According to sources, the fatal crash was caused by the officers of the Anambra Road Traffic Management Agency (ARTMA) —an agency of the Anambra state government —who chased the trailer into the market in a bid to collect tax, levy, or toll from the driver.
This was corroborated by a masculine voiceover that accompanies one of the videos, who was heard also attributing the crash to government agency, whose personnel, he said, gave the trailer a hot chase, for the same purpose.
“And it failed brake in the process and crushed human being like grains,” he said.
The video also shows an unrecognizable corpse of a human being broken into two and buried in cement at the scene of the crash.
However, confirming the accident in statements made available to newsmen the spokesperson of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Anambra State Command, Margaret B. Onabe, attributed it to excessive speeding and brake failure, explaining that the trailer was excessively speeding, and then suffered brake failure, and crashed.
She further gave the casualty figure as five (5), with six (6) other persons sustaining varied degrees of injury in the crash.
According to her, the crash involved a commercial Howo truck belonging to BUA (with no registration number), a commercial TVS tricycle (with registration number: NZH84LG), a commercial Qlink motorcycle (with registration number: OLU245QV), and a private Honda motorcycle (with no registration number).
“A fatal road traffic crash was recorded today, 9th July, 2024 at Green Energy Oil and Gas, by Eke Awgbu, along the Agulu-Agwubu Road. It was a multiple crash,” she said.
Continuing, she quoted an eyewitness account narrating that the driver of the truck was on speed and had a brake failure, lost control of the vehicle, and collided with the other vehicles at a checkpoint and crashed.
“Eleven persons were involved in the crash comprising (9 male adults, and 2 female adults). Five male adults and 1 female adult sustained varying degrees of injury and 4 male adults and 1 female adult were killed.
“Before the arrival of the FRSC rescue team from RS5.35 Igbo-ukwu, the injured victims were rushed by passers-by to Referral Health Centre Awgbu, and the dead victims, deposited at the St. Joseph’s Mortuary Adazi-Ani.
“The rescue team managed traffic and ensured obstruction caused by the crash was cleared,” the statement partly reads.
However, in a follow-up statement released hours later, RC Onabe revealed that one of the injured persons died in a hospital where he was rushed to for urgent medical attention.
“… It was confirmed that two (2) amongst the seven (7) injured victims were referred to the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital, Awka, and two (2) other persons referred to the Regina Caeli Hospital, Awka, of which an adult female was confirmed dead on arrival of the team.
“Meanwhile, an adult male was also confirmed dead at Referral Hospital Awgbu bringing total number of death to six (6), i.e 4 male adults, 2 female adults,” she said.
She also said the FRSC Sector Commander, Anambra State Corps Command, CC Adeoye Irelewuyi, commiserated with the families of the deceased and wished the injured victims quick recovery.
“The Sector Commander urged motorists to drive within the speed limit to arrive at their destinations safely,” she added.
Watch the video below:
