About 13 people had on Wednesday, September 24, 2014 lost their lives in a terrible road clash along the Owerri-Aba Express way at Agbala near Owerri, when the commuter bus they were travelling in suddenly collided with a Mack truck, which was trying to overtake another truck.
It was learnt that the bus, owned by the Young Shall Grow Transport Company, had about 14 passengers travelling from Aba to Lagos.
After the accident, it was discovered that only one out of the 14 passengers survived while the remaining 13 died instantly owing to the nature of the accident.
Following the occurrence, there was a traffic jam along the expressway as people thronged to the scene to see the casualties. It was difficult for the Police officials and the corps of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) to control the crowd.
Eye witnesses said the accident took place when an impatient Mack truck driver who was coming down from Owerri side tried overtaking another truck at the Agbala section of the Owerri/ Aba Expressway.
According to reports by The Sun, it was gathered that the driver of the Young Shall Grow bus, which was also on top speed could not maneuver properly, because of the ditch which was dug by the side of the road by the contractors handling the dualization of the express way.
However, it was gathered that as soon as the accident occurred, the driver of the Mack truck simply fled the site.
An indigene of Agbala, Emeka Ajoku, an eye witness at the accident, blamed the construction company handling the dualization of the road for the accident, stating that if it were not for the ditches on the sides of the road, the accident wouldn’t have happened because the bus driver would have swerved off the road for safety.
He said : “ It is the construction company (Arab Contractors) handling this project that is to be blamed for the terrible accident that claimed the lives of 13 passengers, because if they had not dug these ditches on the sides of the road, the Bus driver could have cleared on the road side. But it was not possible because I was here when it happened and the driver tried to dodge the truck yet the truck still rammed into the bus and pushed it to where it is now”.
He called on the federal government to dismiss the Arab contractors as they were not doing the job assigned to them threatening that the community would be forced to pursue them.
