[size=18pt]Crash: Timber lorry claims 6 lives
By MIKE OSAROGIAGBON[/size]

BENIN CITY ––A timber lorry has rammed into a commercial building in Benin City with about six persons suspected dead while others are critically injured.


Though the injured victims said to be seven Okada riders, including their passengers were immediately rushed to an unknown hospital in Benin City.


Sources disclosed that the fate of the survivors was slim because of the impact of the accident.




The accident which attracted a sea of sympathizers, The NIGERIAN OBSERVER reliably gathered, occurred at about 10 a.m. yesterday when the lorry with registration Number XA 781 SAP which was speeding from Textile Mill Road failed to stop as it crossed the ever-busy Uselu – Lagos Road before crashing into a shop in an opposite building.


The sales girl who was inside the shop died instantly while the stray lorry narrowly missed another girl said to be a phone boot operator.


Another victim of the accident, it was gathered, was a middle-aged man with Plaster of Paris (POP) on his leg who was one of the affected motorcyclists returning from the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Ugbowo where he had reportedly gone to treat the injury sustained from a previous accident.


Although brake failure was suspected, sources however disclosed that the lorry driver had successfully jumped out of the moving timber lorry before it crashed into the commercial building.


It was further gathered that the driver who was pursued and finally captured by passers-by was suspected to have been drunk.


When The NIGERIAN OBSERVER visited the scene of the accident yesterday, the lorry was still inside the shop while debris of the affected part of the building littered the ground.


Blood stains of the victims and smashed parts of their motorcycles were still visible on the spot, even as sympathizers thronged the Uselu-Lagos Road, causing heavy traffic jam.

http://www.nigerianobservernews.com/09042009/news/news3.html