An early morning accident on Tuesday claimed 15 lives and injured 38 passengers when a white Mistibushi Canter truck reportedly veered off the road and crashed into Omi River along the Ibadan- Ijebu Ode Road. I

It was gathered that truck marked XE331MKA, “overloaded” with passengers was travelling from Sokoto when the accident occured at the Omi River.

The State Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Clement Oladele in a terse statement made available to Daily Trust on Tuesday in Abeokuta, said 15 corpses, all male, crammed into the mini truck have been recovered. He said rescue operations “is still ongoing.”

“So far, thirty eight passengers in the mini truck sustained various degrees of injuries and rescued to the state hospital Ijebu Ode.

“The corpses of the dead victims have been evacuated to Sabo in Ijebu Ode with the Sarki Hausawa making arrangements with the police for mass burial of the dead victims.

“The suspected cause of the crash is fatigue as the vehicle veered off the road and crashed into the dried Omi river along the Ibadan- Ijebu Ode road. The Omi River has a narrow bridge bereft of safety guard railings,” he said.

Oladele commiserated with the victims and advised passengers to desist “from boarding goods – only vehicles which by their configurations are not designed for transporting passengers but only goods and such goods – only trucks open compartment nature without comfortable seats or mere wooden seats are not suitable for passengers safety.”

He advised families of the victims to contact the FRSC command in Ago Iwoye or Ijebu Ode for details of the crash. (Daily Trust)

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