by Mudiaga Affe
NINETEEN people including the drivers of a bus and truck were among those killed in an auto crash along the Calabar-Itu highway in Cross River State on Wednesday night when an Onitsha-bound bus collided with two trucks.
The accident, an eyewitness, Peace Monday, said occurred at about 9pm when a bus belonging to Cross-Link Motors carrying 18 passengers from Calabar was descending the Obot Isong slope, close to the bridge.
“The truck was on a top speed and overtook the bus right on the bridge on the right side and since the bridge is narrow, this forced the bus to face oncoming vehicles and incidentally, a truck was coming from the Akwa Ibom end of the road.
“The driver of the oncoming truck with registration number Akwa Ibom NGD 01 XA, also on a top speed could not stop or control his truck to allow the bus to pass through the narrow space on the bridge and so the trucks ran over the bus killing everybody except one lucky passenger who sustained severe injuries.
“The truck that over took the bus tore through the railings and capsized.
“The driver and the conductor were removed from under the bridge dead but two other conductors who sat behind the truck sustained serious injuries because they were flung very far from the truck into the bush,” Monday said.
He said the dead and the injured were taken to the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, UCTH, for medical attention by officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission for Akwa Ibom State.”
When our correspondent visited the scene on Thursday, personal effects of the victims such as bags, shoes, clothes and can drinks littered the scene.
It was gathered from officials of the FRSC in Cross River State that their colleagues from Akwa Ibom carried out the evacuation process.
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