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No fewer than 20 people died in a ghastly motor accident along Kaduna-Abuja expressway on Sunday night.
The Sector Commander of the Federal Roads Safety Corps in Kaduna State, Umar Ibrahim, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna on Monday that the accident occurred around 7 p.m. at Dutse U-turn, 22 kilometres from Kaduna metropolis.
Ibrahim said the accident involved a white DAF articulated vehicle with registration number: AJG118XA and a white Toyota HAICE bus with registration number: XA866MLF.
He said that the 16-seater bus was overloaded with 30 passengers, 29 males and a female going to the southern part of the country.
According to him, the accident occurred when the truck that was coming from Abuja axis was trying to make a u-turn at Dutse and a bus coming from Kaduna axis rammed into it, killing 17 people instantly.
“Ten others sustained injuries and were rushed to the hospital by an FRSC official, where three of them also died.”
The sector commander said that the truck was going to evacuate cows from a broken down truck closed to the accident scene.
He said that the number of the death was this high because the bus was extremely overloaded.
“The bus was not only overloaded with passengers but also choked with dismembered motorcycles belonging to the passengers, “he said.
He said that the accident caused a trafficking gridlock that lasted for about four hours, saying, “we had to divert traffic to single lane before we were able to clear the wreckage and allow free flow of traffic.”
An eye witness, Kabiru Mohammed, told NAN that he was on his way to Abuja when he came across the accident.
“Initially I thought it was armed robbery in progress, because I saw motorists turning back and taking the other lane, before I saw the articulated vehicle by the u-turn that obstructed traffic.
“On getting there after I took the other lane, I saw a lot of people lay dead, while FRSC officials were trying to take the injured to the hospital.
“It was really a terrible sight, “Mohammed said.
Photo: Scene from a road rage in 2017
