Osun road accident leaves 16 passengers dead

According to reports, a traffic accident that happened on Friday in Odeomu, Osun State, resulted in the deaths of about 16 individuals.

The two involved automobiles collided, according to Odeomu resident Fatai Lasisi, who was nearby the accident scene.

According to Lasisi, an Osogbo-bound commercial Mazda bus and a private car travelling from Ikorodu, Lagos State, to Osogbo collided.

He claimed that the commercial bus, which had a gas cylinder in its trunk, swerved into a bush where it caught fire after losing control after being struck by the Lexus car.

Mr. Kareem Isau, the former chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers' Odeomu Branch, added that when he arrived at the accident site, the bus in question had already caught fire.

He said that while the burned-out van contained 16 dead, including 5 children, only 3 passengers and the bus driver perished.

Isau said, “I arrived at the scene of the accident around 7 pm on Friday. People I met there told me a Lexus vehicle coming from Ibadan end hit a commercial Mazda bus coming from Osogbo going to Ibadan. The bus lost control and entered the bush. Immediately that happened, the bus caught fire because a gas cylinder was kept in the trunk of the vehicle.

“I saw that gas cylinder when it was brought it. The vehicle was already burning when I arrived at the scene around 7 pm. I was told the accident occurred earlier. The Mazda bus left Aregbesola area in Osogbo to go to Ibadan.

“Four people escaped: the driver of the vehicle, a security agent, a corps member and a lady. One of the four that survived, a lady, told us that the bus with an 18-passenger capacity left Aregbesola Area on Friday for Ibadan.

 â€œShe also said some of the passengers were nursing mothers and carried their babies, while some passengers sat on each other's lap. When we were removing the corpses from the vehicle, five children were packed together. In all, we removed 16 corpses from the vehicle.” 

Agnes Ogungbemi, the Federal Road Safety Corps' public education officer for the Osun Sector, responded that there was no official casualty statistic available when approached on Saturday for comment.

She said, “No detail for now because we have not been able to ascertain the dead, but the injured have been taken to the hospital.

One of the vehicles carried gas, it exploded and cause the fire outbreak.”

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