No fewer than three persons escaped death when a cement-loaded truck belonging to Dangote Group rammed into a taxi in Panseke area of Abeokuta, Ogun State, in the late hours of Thursday.
Punch reporter who visited the scene of the accident gathered that the Dangote truck with registration number GRZ753XA, Kano, rammed into the taxi with registration number FFF197XB, Ogun, crushed it against the culvert, and damaged the rear windshield of the taxi.
An eyewitness who spoke with PUNCH Metro, Ismat Abdulsalam, noted that the accident occurred when the Dangote truck tried to climb the hill part of the road but lost control, adding that the weight of the load it was carrying forced it to reverse and rammed into the taxi that was packed nearby.
Abdulsalam said, “I am a trader in this area. What I saw was that the Dangote truck was climbing this hill part of the road but I think it lost control or maybe the break failed which forced the vehicle to reverse leading to the collision with the taxi that was parked here.”
Another eyewitness who pleaded anonymity told our correspondent that the driver of the taxi driver had gone to pray while he parked his cab by the roadside when the accident occurred. He bemoaned the lack of a designated bus stop as the reason why the taki operators often stopped to pick up passengers at the spot of the accident.
He said, “I think the driver of the vehicle who is often called Alfa went to pray when the accident occurred. No designated bus stop along this road, and most taxi drivers often stop and pick up passengers here including, commercial motorcyclists.”
Meanwhile, the intervention of the men of the Nigeria Police Force led to the evacuation of the vehicles and cleared the road of gridlock that was building up due to the accident.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer in Ogun state, Omolola Odutola, said she had not received any report on the accident. She promised to get back to our correspondent as soon as she got the details. She had not replied as of the time of filing this report.
However, Public Relations Officer of the Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency, Babatunde Akinbiyi, said the agency was not aware of the accident.
He asked our correspondent to call back but did not respond to call when contacted
