Three persons have been confirmed dead and others critically injured in multiple accidents in the Ugheli area of Delta State.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the accident involved a Volkswagen Golf, a Tipper and other vehicles along Evwreni axis of the East-West road, in Ughelli North Local Government Area of the state on Sunday.
It was learnt that the deceased were first taken to the emergency unit of the Ughelli Central Hospital by men of the Ughelli Unit of the Federal Road Safety Corps where they were confirmed dead by the doctor on duty.
Eyewitness simply identified as Edafe explained that both tipper and Volkswagen Golf were coming from 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 its lane with the speed and hit the tipper in 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.
Confirming the accident, the Ughelli Unit Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Ikechukwu Okwo said three persons died while one was 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 attributed the accident to a speed violation, pointing out that speed violation was one of the common causes of a crash.
He advised commuters to use a common sense speed limit when plying the roads, especially during these festive periods when there will be many vehicular movements on the roads, noting that the corpses have been taken to the Ughelli Central Hospital mortuary as at the time of this report.
By
Matthew Ochei. Punch Metro
