The deceased who lives with her aunt at the Atimbo area of Calabar, was crossing the Calabar-Akpabuyo-Bakassi Road with a little boy to a popular market in the locality to buy some food stuff for the aunt (Mrs. Eteng) when the end came.
A salon operator, who witnessed the incident but pleaded anonymity, said Ruth was about to assist a five-year-old boy to cross the road when a taxi driver came out from a street nearby and knocked her down.
“I was trying to open the door of my salon when I saw a taxi (Camry) car carrying the woman from where she was standing into a truck that was passing and the truck smashed the head, resulting in her brain scattered all over the place.
“Immediately she fell down, a trailer which was so close by crushed her to death and the taxi driver who wanted to stop drove off at top speed. The boy she was with had been taken to General Hospital, Calabar,” she said.
The hair dresser absolved the trailer driver of any fault, saying the mob that gathered got hold of the trailer driver because the taxi driver who caused the accident had sped off.
Mrs. Eteng who was in tears at their Edim Otop residence about 1,000 metres away from the scene of the accident, said Ruth was sent to the market after church service but did not come back on time.
“I have just come back from the scene of the accident. I asked her to go and buy some food condiments for us to cook. She over-stayed and I just heard people talking in low tones. Nobody told me anything until I got to the scene before I realised that it was Ruth who was involved.
“I just decided to walk to the market which is close to where I live. It was along the road I started hearing whispers from passers-by about what happened along the main road.
“Behold it was my younger one, killed by two vehicles. I only met the cap and pieces of clothes that she had on,” Mrs. Eteng said tearfully.
She denied knowing the boy who survived the accident, but added: “They only told me how she wanted to help the young child to cross the road when she was knocked down while the child survived.”
The police impounded the truck, taking it to the Airport Police Station where the driver was detained while visitors were denied access to them.
