No fewer than 32 lives were lost in an accident on the Akure-Owo Road on Monday when two commercial buses collided.
Eyewitnesses said the accident occurred on KM14, Ogbesse town of Ondo State.
The two Abuja-bound buses were said to be coming from Lagos and had a head-on collision with a truck while attempting to overtake a trailer.
The buses were said to have swerved to the other lane while on top speed.
They were said to have had a head-on collision with another on-coming trailer which was also on top speed from Owo.
According to eyewitnesses, the trailer with number plate XN 769 ABC, and the first bus that ran into it, got burnt instantly with all the passengers and drivers.
The second bus behind it with number plate XZ 976 AKD, did not burn but all its passengers and driver reportedly died on the spot.
The Public Relations Officer of the Ondo State Police Command, Mr. Aremu Adeniran, confirmed on Tuesday that 30 people lost their lives in the fatal crash.
He said their corpses had been removed from the wreckage and deposited at the State Specialist Hospital in Akure.
But the Sector Commander of the Federal Roads Safety Commission, Mr. John Meheux, said on Tuesday that the report he received from the rescue team drafted to the scene by his agency, indicated that 32 persons lost their lives.
Meheux explained to our correspondent that all the 14 persons in the first bus, a Toyota Hiace and the two occupants of the trailer which it crashed into, got burnt beyond recognition.
He said all the 18 passengers and driver in the second Toyota Hiace bus, died while three others sustained serious injuries.
Meheux, said his agency had started adopting motorised patrol whereby the commission’s officers could be seen on the road any time by the driver.
He said the strategy would automatically curb excessive speeding.
“This measure will, to a great extent, reduce accidents on the roads,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko has described the incident as highly unfortunate.
Mimiko, in company with his personal aides, who were on their way to Abuja on Tuesday, condemned the development which, according to him was avoidable if the Federal Government agency in charge of highway maintenance was alive to its responsibilities.
The governor, according to his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Kolawole Olabisi, in a telephone interview with our correspondent, wondered why the Federal Government could not dualise the road from Ilesa to Benin to avoid the loss of precious lives and property on the highway.
He said, “The governor expressed serious concern and regret on the monumental loss of the precious lives of innocent Nigerians in the accident. He even betrayed emotion when he was told that 14 people, including babies, were roasted alive.”
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