No fewer than 13 persons died in two separate accidents on Thursday on the Oloru-Bode Saadu road, on the outskirts of Ilorin, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has said.
The FRSC Sector Commander in Kwara, Jonathan Owoade, confirmed the casualty figure to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the scene of the crashes in Bode Saadu.
He said that the accidents occurred as a result of driver’s loss of concentration, over speeding, and tyre burst.
“Two different road traffic crashes occurred this morning at the Jebba-Oloru axis, one was due to over speeding and boredom, it rammed into a stationary truck while the second was as a result of tyre burst,” he said.
According to him, the first accident involving a bus and a truck occurred at about 4.00am at Aiyekale community.
“Out of 19 passengers, 11 persons died on the spot, one died in the hospital while seven sustained different degrees of injures,” he said.
Owoade said that the second accident, which was as a result of tyre burst, happened at Lakanla bridge, and “8 persons were involved, one person died and another injured.”
He said that the corpses had been deposited at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital morgue and those who sustained injures were receiving treatment.
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The sector commander cautioned motorists against night journeys and reckless driving in the interest of their lives and that of the passengers.
“Trucks should compulsorily use reflectors when parked by road sides or highways, overloading should be avoided, they overburden the tyres and cause them to burst.”
“Drivers should avoid night journeys, they have to be more careful, life has no duplicate. There is nothing bad in stopping the journey when night falls,” he said.
Owoade said the sector was making moves to collaborate with other sectors to undertake an enlightenment campaign for drivers in the northern part of the country.
He said that such collaboration had become necessary because of the high incidence of accidents and casualty figure as a result of speeding and reckless driving.
NAN
