A heavy-duty truck, marked Rivers BNY 137 XA on Wednesday killed three persons at the ever-busy Urua Ekpa junction along Itu Highway during the early morning rush hours.
The victims included two boys and a young lady, who sources said was planning to tie the knots in a couple of weeks.
The Mack truck reportedly going towards Calabar was said to have lost control while trying to avoid a commercial tricycle rider who crossed the highway recklessly and ramped into the packed filling station, killing them and injuring one woman who sweeps the road, as sympathizers wailed uncontrollably.
An eyewitness who simply identified himself as Effiong said, ‘’ the driver apparently applied his break suddenly on sighting the Keke man crossing the road and veered off to the filling station were a good number of commuters standing by the fringes to catch buses to their various destinations.
‘’Only God knows because the lady was planning for her marriage and one of the boys which died wanted to bury his mother who is still in the morgue. The boy is from Obon while the lady hails from Uruan. Their families were here to identify them’’.
Contacted, Itam Divisional Police Officer, Francis Erhabor, confirmed the incident, disclosing that the truck driver has been arrested and would be prosecuted after an investigation has been concluded.
Expressing sympathy to the families of the victims, he said their remains have been dumped in the morgue, while the only survivor was taken to an undisclosed hospital for medical attention.
He said, ‘’ I got a call this morning (yesterday) from the control room that there was a fatal accident and I dispatched my men to the scene. The driver of the truck has been arrested. Once, there is a fatal accident, the dead are taken to the hospital, the survivor to the hospital, while the culprit is arrested. We have done just that. My concern is that the one that survived is catered for. As for the culprit, he would be prosecuted. That is the normal thing to do because that was a fatal accident’’.
However, Police Public Relations Officer, Macdon Odiko, Superintendent of Police, said he was yet to be briefed on the incident, stating, ‘’I don’t have information yet, I have not been briefed’’.
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