Five Dies, Others Sustain Injuries In Owerri-Onitsha Auto Crash

A total of Five persons lost their lives while several others sustained injuries in an accident on the Owerri-Onitsha road in Imo State.

The accident on Friday involved a coaster bus belonging to the Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Renewal Movement and a tipper truck.

The incident led to gridlock on the busy Owerri-Onitsha road.

Eyewitnesses made it known that five victims died instantly and were evacuated by an ambulance to a hospital.

“The accident is between a long coaster bus carrying members of the Lord’s Chosen, and a tipper,” one eyewitness said. 

“The two vehicles were coming from Onitsha to Owerri but the coaster bus, to overtake the tipper, now collided with it and immediately lost control.

“The driver tried to control the steering but it ran into a Coca-Cola depot where over ten of its staff were knocked down by the vehicle.

“When people gathered and started pulling victims out from the car, we discovered that three of the Coca-Cola staff died on the spot, and others were badly injured.

“The tipper driver and his conductor also died. The conductor was forcefully pulled out of the back of the tipper and the moving tipper climbed on his head and pierced the brain. The driver also hit his chest on the steering and bled to death. It was a horrible accident.”

A resident of the Orogwe community who witnessed the accident said none of the Lord’s Chosen members died, but some sustained various degrees of injuries.

“As I speak, so many people are still stacked under the Lord’s Chosen’s vehicle,” he said.

“We have tried to pull the vehicle out to no avail. We have used a heavy-duty vehicle to pull it out to see if some people are under it, no way.”

Efforts to speak with officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) on the scene proved abortive.