15 die in Ibadan, Ekiti auto accidents

IT was a bleak evening for residents of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Saturday, when no fewer than 11 people lost their lives during a multiple accident which occurred at the Olodo area of the state capital, just as another tragedy struck in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, same day, as four members of a church in Ado-Ekiti, including two children, lost their lives in a road crash after a vigil service.
According to an eyewitness who spoke on condition of anonymity over the Ibadan accident, the multiple accidents took place when a jeep veered off its side of the road and crashed into two oncoming vehicles.
“The accident was devastating. A jeep, which had been maintaining its own side of the road suddenly lost control and swerved to the other lane where it crashed into an 18-seater bus. The 18-seater bus in turn crashed into another taxi conveying commuters.
“Before we knew what was happening, many of the occupants of the vehicles were already in the pool of their blood. The mangled bodies that were trapped in the vehicles were all that we could recover,” the eyewitness said.
Also five other people were said to have also sustained various degrees of injuries in the Ekiti accident, which occurred at ‘Ikere’ bus stop at the Polytechnic Road in Ado Ekiti, at about 6:00 a.m.
It was gathered that two vehicles involved in the accident, a Mercedes Benz truck with registration number XT 835 LND and a Volkswagen Golf car marked LFF 213 XA, used for commercial transportation, had a head-on collision.
The taxi driver, said to be Ebenezer Olushola, a woman and two children died at the scene of the accident, while the five others were taken to the University Teaching Hospital in Ado Ekiti.
There was no report that the driver of the truck, Mr Ojo Babatunde, sustained any injury.
Sources told Sunday Tribune that the pastor of the church, whose name could not be ascertained at the time of this report, collapsed on hearing the news of the tragedy and was said to have also been taken to an hospital where he was said to have been revived, but was still being monitored.
The State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Victor Babayemi, confirmed the incident, the names of the drivers, the vehicle registration numbers and said that the injured had been taken to the hospital.
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