4 DIE, 8 INJURED IN ANAMBRA BULLION VAN CRASH

FRANKLIN ONWUBIKO -
Four persons, including two policemen and a
road-side vulcanizer died, yesterday, at New Auto Tyres
Market, at Nkpor, Idemili North Local Government Area...
of
Anambra State, near the commercial city of Onitsha in a
ghastly motor accident involving a convoy of bank bullion
van and other commercial vehicles.
The incident which occurred at about 10 a.m., involving
five vehicles at a time, including two articulated trucks, the
bullion van, its Toyota Hilux escort, Mercedes Benz 911
truck and a Chevrolet bus, caused a gridlock along Enugu/
Onitsha expressway.
According to the source, the bullion van and its escort Hilux
van heading towards Awka, the state capital, from the
Onitsha end, apparently conveying an unspecified amount
of money to Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, branch were on
high speed when one of the bullion van's tyres blew out.
Eye witnesses told Vanguard that the bullion van swerved
towards the right side of the expressway and the driver lost
control and hit a moving Mercedes Benz 911 lorry with
number plate Delta XA 928 ASB which led to the
dismantling of the two front tyres and other components of
the lorry as it fell into a drainage.
The escort vehicle, with number plate AAA 87 BZ, while
trying to dodge the bullion van, hit the back of an articulated
truck parked by the side of the drainage, killing two
policemen on the spot while others were critically injured.
The Mercedes Benz 911 hit by the bullion van, in turn hit
another parked truck which hit the Chevrolet bus before
they all rolled into the drainage.
As the uncontrollable crowd was battling to recover the
bodies of dead victims and at the same time rescuing the
injured ones, the source said, some policemen quickly
brought in a towing van which recovered the damaged
bullion van, leaving the Hilux van which was damaged
beyond repairs with blood stain.
The corpses of the two policemen, that of the vulcanizer and
one other suspected to be either a driver or conductor of one
of the lorries, were moved to a nearby mortuary, while the
injured were conveyed to a nearby hospital.
The Nteje Unit Commander of the Federal Road Safety
Commission, FRSC, Mr. Sunday Joseph, who confirmed the
incident in a telephone chat with newsmen, however, said
he was aware of the death of only one policeman, while 11
others were injured.
Joseph also confirmed that the cause of the incident was
over-speeding and dangerous over-taking by the bullion
van, arguing that its tyre did not blow out before the
incident, but after.
In another development, the Onitsha Unit Commander of the
FRSC, Mr. Anthony Metta also confirmed that a commercial
bus knocked down a commercial motorcyclist and his
passenger at the Bridge-head end of the Enugu/Onitsha
expressway yesterday morning, injuring the two of them.
Metta told newsmen also in a telephone chat that the driver
abandoned his vehicle and fled the scene as soon as he
knocked down the duo, adding that when some soldiers on
patrol and FRSC officials took the injured motorcyclists to
St. Charles Borromeo Hospital with the abandoned
commercial bus, for urgent medical attention, the driver
later later mobilizsed his fellow drivers and trooped to the
hospital premises and held the FRSC officials hostage for
dare using his bus to take the injured ones to the hospital.