Three people have been confirmed dead and several others sustained varying degrees of injuries in a multiple accidents in Delta State.de
The accidents which involved a volkswagen golf, a tipper and several other vehicles occurred along the Evwreni axis of the East-West road in the Ughelli North Local Government Area.
The PUNCH Metro reports that the victims were first brought to the emergency room of the Ughelli Central Hospital by members of the Federal Road Safety Corps’ Ughelli Unit, where the on-duty physician confirmed three persons dead.
An eyewitness, Edafe, who was easily recognised, claimed that the tipper and volkswagen golf were both traveling in the same direction.
“Due to the traffic along the lane, the golf driver tried to beat the traffic when it saw an upcoming vehicle in the opposite direction. It was in the process of trying to avoid the opposite vehicle, the driver swung back to it’s lane with the speed and hit the tipper on the traffic.
“I was coming with my passenger between Unenurhe and Evwreni when I saw the hold-up, I came down to see what was happening, then I saw the accident, some of them were shouting for help, two people supposed to survive, then I dropped my passenger and rescued only one person.
“That is the one in Calvary Hospital. And also the speed they use to drive is too much, that is how the accident happened.
“When I got to the hospital, the workers seized me that I was not going to leave the place, that I was the only one they know. I tried to call the people with the phone I saw.
“The tipper was coming from Ughelli to Bayelsa while the car was coming from Ughelli to Uwherun, both were coming on the same lane.
“The second side of the road was blocked and they were using one lane, maybe he wanted to overtake the tipper but when he saw another car coming, he now hit the tipper,” he said.
The Ughelli Unit Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Ikechukwu Okwo, confirmed the accident stating that three people had died and one person was severely injured.
He said, “We received a distress call about a crash along Ughelli/Patani road and then we dispatch a team of our rescue officers and marshalls to carry out the rescue and then along the line we discovered that three people were confirmed dead.
“The three persons were carried to General Hospital where the doctor confirmed them dead. One of the victims was rescued alive and then taken to the hospital.
“We do timely rescue, within ten minutes we were there, even when one was trapped, we made all effort to bring him out.”
Okwo blamed the collision on a speeding infraction, noting that this was one of the most frequent reasons for collisions.
He cautioned commuters to drive at a reasonable speed, especially during these holiday times when there will be lots of vehicle traffic, saying that the casualties had been transferred to the mortuary at the Ughelli Central Hospital as of the time of this report.
