Four persons lost their lives with scores injured, following an auto crash on Aba Waterside River bridge in Ogbor-Hill, Aba, Abia State.
Vanguard gathered that the crash occurred as a truck conveying a 40-foot container, was said to have lost its brakes, rammed into a car and tricycle, killing four persons on the spot.
An eyewitness told Vanguard that the truck while descending from Opobo Junction axis on Aba Ikot-Ekpene road swerved due to the break failure when it hit another broken down truck on the bridge.
The crash into the broken down truck led it to collide with a Sienna bus and a tricycle as well as another stationary vehicle on the bridge.
When Vanguard visited the scene, men of the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, were seen directing traffic.
Sympathizers made frantic efforts to rescue the injured and those trapped under the container. One of the rescued passengers in the tricycle had her legs damaged, while the other was seriously injured.
Some of the sympathizers at the scene expressed anger at the FRSC operatives over the delay in getting a towing van to lift the container to rescue victims, who were still trapped under the fallen container.
“This is two to three hours after the accident, there is no towing van or crane to remove the container which fell on a Siena bus,” the sympathizers said.
Another eyewitness, Mr. Ikenna Nzekwe, said that it was condemnable that both the state and federal governments did not think it wise to construct a flyover across the Aba waterside bridge to decongest traffic from Uyo, Ikot-Ekpene into Aba.
“When will the government understand that these heavy-duty vehicles shouldn’t be on the road in the daytime? When will government agencies learn to remove spoilt vehicles on the road to save lives? These are issues we should be focusing on. The FRSC came with nothing except their Hilux. What kind of a country is this?” he querried.
Contacted, Aba Unit Commander, FRSC, Assistant Corps Commander, Jennifer Offor, said the unit had no towing van or crane and had to rely on companies to get a towing van which removed the crashed vehicles from the road.
