JULY 2, 2013
The driver of a trailer, identified as Umar, caused panic on Monday when he attempted to escape the scene of an accident.
The incident, which involved a Sinotruk trailer with number plate KANO MKK 37 XA belonging to Dangote Cement Company, and a Nissan Vanette bus, marked LAGOS EKY 631 XC, happened on the Calabar-Itu highway.
The accident occurred when one of the side tail-boards of the trailer opened unexpectedly. It smashed the bus, which was by its side.
The door and window frames of the bus were sliced with the driver and two other passengers on the left flank of the vehicle sustaining serious injuries.
The driver, who was obviously aware of what had happened, however, ignored the people who flagged him down.
Instead, he accelerated and ran over a security barricade in his bid to escape.
The driver brushed two other trailers and shoved some vehicles on the road aside.
On getting to the Ekim-Itam junction in Akwa Ibom State, the driver veered off the road, destroying security barricades.
No fewer than 15 vehicles, including a police van followed the fleeing trailer.
Immediately Umar halted the trailer, he jumped down and attempted to escape alongside three other occupants of the trailer, but they were apprehended.
Umar and the three others, who identified themselves as Iliasu, Sumaila and Talihu, narrowly escaped being lynched by some occupants of the vehicles that pursued them.
It took the intervention of two riot policemen to calm down the angry commuters.
When asked why he did not stop after the accident, Umar claimed that he “was not aware of what happened.”
But one of the occupants of the trailer contradicted his claim, insisting that the driver was actually trying to escape.
Umar said the truck was detailed to Calabar to supply bags of cement to a customer, adding that they were on their way back to Obajana in Kogi State.
The police detained Umar and his accomplices, while the trailer and the bus were taken to the Police Station at Itu.
No comments:
Post a Comment