Tragedy struck Biase community of Cross River State when a Mitsubishi truck rammed into a 14-seater Hiace bus, killing 11 female traders on the spot, while another female passenger was critically injured.
The auto crash occurred along the Calabar-Ikom highway on Friday, when the driver of the truck lost control of the vehicle due to brake failure.
A man, Comrade Edokor Akong Ogar, who witnessed the incident told our correspondent that it happened at 1:30 pm, when the women were returning from Adim market in Biase. He said the truck had a head-on-collision with the mini-bus.
Ogar said: “I was driving behind the bus conveying the women, when suddenly an empty truck which was coming on top speed lost control on the highway and rammed into the bus, practically crushing it.
“I can tell you that I saw some of the passengers’ bodies littered on the road, with 11 women dead on the spot while the other three had very serious injuries. It would only take the grace of the Almighty God for them to survive because of the critical nature of their injuries.
“As at when I was leaving the scene of the accident, residents of the community had come to evacuate the dead bodies out of the road to forestall further gridlock, but the truck driver was trapped inside his vehicle. Some boys were using axe to break the door so as to ascertain his state but the front of the truck was squeezed,” he said.
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the Cross River Sector of the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Mr. Festus Ndumele, confirmed the auto crash, and assured that the relevant unit of FRSC in the state had commenced investigation to ascertain the cause.