Kerosene Tanker
Claim 20 lives in Onitsha.
No
fewer than 20 people were, yesterday afternoon, crushed to death by a tanker
laden with kerosene at Upper Iweka Onitsha, Anambra State, with scores
reportedly injured. Also yesterday, six people were crushed at Ibughubu Market,
Umuchu, in Aguata local government area of the state in an accident involving a
truck loaded with cement and a lorry with property worth millions of naira
destroyed.
According
to an eye witness, the kerosene tanker driver drove through the service lane at
Upper Iweka Onitsha where he reportedly lost control around Adam and Eve Motors
and crushed many traders and vehicles in the process. It was hectic time for
emergency respondents, the Police, Federal Road Safety Corps, Onitsha and
Anambra State Traffic Agency and Willie’s Work Force, WWF, to evacuate dead
victims and those with injuries, including the affected vehicles from the road.
Eyewitnesses
said the victims might be more considering the distance where the tanker lost
control and where it was halted as many people and vehicles were dragged while
descending the ever busy Service Lane at Upper Iweka where over forty different
transport companies are located. Many body parts and blood of the victims were
seen along the road the tanker drove through before it finally stopped at the
public toilet building located at Upper Iweka.
A
Toyota Siena belonging to Onitsha South Transport Company that was discharging
passengers on arrival from Enugu was one of the vehicles crushed with the
passengers. The State Chairman of the Nigerian Red Cross Society, NRCS, Prof.
Peter Katchy, speaking with newsmen at the scene, disclosed that the bodies of
the deceased persons had been deposited at a hospital morgue, while three
persons, who sustained serious injuries, were rushed to Pieta Specialist
Hospital and Toronto Hospital.
Katchy
added that one of the dead persons in his 30s lost his head completely and was
lying headless at the compound of the hospital. However, at about 5.58p.m.,
when Vanguard visited Toronto Hospital, more than 200 sympathisers were
gathered in the compound, trying to catch a glimpse of the dead and survived
victims. Doctors and nurses in the hospital were busy running round to save the
lives of the surviving victims.
Medical
Director of Toronto Hospital, Prince Emeka Eze, who was away in the United
Kingdom, UK, was also heard instructing the doctors and nurses not to ask for
any deposit from the victims, but to save lives first.
He
also ordered for immediate blood transfusion for the surviving victims who may
have lost blood in the accident. Matron of the hospital, Ijeoma Ogegbulam,
while speaking with Vanguard, said 10 people were deposited in the hospital
morgue, and out of the ten, two died at the emergency theatre due to excessive
loss of blood, while eight died at the scene of the accident before they were
brought to the hospital.
Ogomegbulam
said seven surviving victims, four female and three male are currently on
admission in the hospital, adding that their chances of survival were very
bright. When Vanguard called the Police Public Relations Officer, Anambra State
Police Command, Mr. Mohammed Haruna, at about 6.20p.m. yesterday, his phone
indicated that it was switched off.
The
DPO of Central Police Station, Onitsha, Mr. Ifeanyi Ibru was too exhausted to
speak to newsmen when he was approached for comment at the scene and at Toronto
Hospital when he led his men to visit the survivors of the accident.
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