Four persons lost their lives in the wee hours of Tuesday evening along Asaba-Ibusa Expressway by Ugwuatakpo.
The multiple accident which involved two cars, an eighteen seater bus, a tanker loaded with petrol, and an articulated vehicle made sympathisers lament over the unpredictability of life.
At the scene Constituent reporter found road safety officials toing some of the badly damaged cars out of the road, the police on guard, and a man scooping petrol from the fallen tanker.
All the number plates of the vehicles were removed.
“Can anybody come out of this one alive?”, one woman asked rhetorically.
Other sympathiser wondered why one of the vehicles (a sienna car) was crushed in a manner that depicted dynamite bomb blast.
According to a staff of Ibusa general hospital who craved anonymity, the deceased persons were taken to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Asaba while the injured were receiving treatment.
“Four people were brought here for treatment. One was injured on the head, one got injured on the leg, one had a cut on his thigh, and another on the hand. But four other persons who lost their lives have been taken to Asaba”.
Speaking with our reporter about the level of tragedy that had happened on the Ugwuatakpo road a man who identified himself as Iyke narrated how he lost a close relative at that exact spot.
“In 2016, I lost my father inlaw at that exact location in an accident that claimed the lives of everyone in an eighteen seater bus. That situation destabilised me because my wife and I were planning our marriage. I was just getting to know her father when an accident took his life at Ugwuatakpo”, Iyke said.
Confirming the validity of the 2016 incidence another resident, in his mid 30s said that he lost an uncle in that accident.
“My mother’s brother who was on way home after the day’s work, lost his life in a bus carrying many passengers, only one person survived that incidence in 2016. Many people have died on that very road”, he said enraged.
The cause of the accident is unknown as at the time of filing this report. But close observations at the scene revealed that due to the construction going on, one lane had been closed while the other lane currently serves commuters. It was obvious that the Sienna car on one-way-lane had serious collision with a lorry creating tension that led other vehicles to lose control.