Fifty eight passengers narrowly escaped death on Wednesday after a tanker laden with Premium Motor Spirit rammed into six vehicles at the Odukpani end of the Calabar-Ikom road in Cross River State.
The accident was reportedly caused by break failure.
Sector Commander of Federal Road Safety Corps, Mr. Ikechukwu Igwe, who confirmed this on Friday, said one person was injured in the incident.
Southern City News learnt that the tanker, with registration number XE 381 GME, was heading towards the northern part of the county when it had a break failure and rammed into the six vehicles, including commercial buses that had a total of 58 persons inside.
An eye witness, Mrs. Stella Bright, said the accident took place at about 7.30pm with only one serious casualty.
She said residents of the area were surprised because the accident happened on the spot where seven persons perished after a truck carrying gravel rammed into a Port Harcourt-bound commercial bus two weeks ago.
Bright said, “We saw the tanker coming from afar, but shortly, we discovered that it was dangling on the highway and before we knew what was happening, it had rammed into six cars including a bus owned by the Peace Mass Transport Company.
“A total of 58 persons were involved but luckily, only one person was seriously injured and was immediately rushed to the General Hospital Calabar.”
However, the state sector commander of FRSC, said his men got to the scene at 7.50pm to carry out the rescue.
He maintained the tanker was laden with fuel but had a break failure along that Odukpani end of the highway and in the course of trying to control the vehicle, the driver rammed into other vehicles.
“Only one person was injured out of 58 persons that were inside the various vehicles. We have cleared the road with the assistance of the men of the fire service to come and remove the fuel laden tanker. The injured person was taken to the General Hospital in Calabar,” Igwe said.[Punch]
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