No fewer than four people have lost their lives and many others were injured as a trailer collided with a Nigerian police van at Dutse-Baupma along the Dutse-Bwari expressway in the Bwari area council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The accident which occurred on Saturday, July 8, 2023, was said to have been due to a failed brake from a trailer carrying sharp sand that also affected a black Toyota Highlander Jeep, a black Hilux pickup van belonging to the Nigeria Police Force, and a commercial tricycle.
An eyewitness, Abdul Mohammed, explained that the trailer carrying sand failed brake from the Usman Dam junction along the Dutse-Bwari expressway and had to crash into the vehicles, where almost all the occupants lost their lives.
“I was about to cross over to the main road with my car when I saw the trailer on a high-speed drive past us and started crashing into vehicles.
“Bystanders at the Tipper garage junction were lucky that they quickly noticed that the trailer had failed to break, so they quickly scampered for safety,” Mohammed said.
He further said that; “The trailer driver, the passengers, and the occupant of the Police Hilux were not lucky at all, as they all died instantly while people in the Highlander Jeep and Keke NAPEP were seriously injured. More than four people died on the spot.
“This junction has been a death trap for a long time, and nothing has been done to stop it. The FCT Administration should come to our rescue here, and if possible, they should tell all trailer drivers not to move on this road during the day but at night.
“Because the trailer drivers that ply this route do not care about human lives at all, they drive their trailers as if they are the only people using this road, and there have been too many deaths at this junction, and the government should do something drastic about it.”
Officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) have taken the bodies of the dead victims to a morgue, while the survivors were rushed to the hospital for medical attention as at press time.
