The euphoria of Christmas season was brought to a halt yesterday in Ubulu – Uku ,Aniocha South Local Government Area of Delta – State as a truck rammed into shops in a popular Daily market ,killing one person and injuring two others .
The truck driver ,with registration number AKL 383 XA coming from Ogwashi – Uku axis ,heading to Isele – Uku, lost control at the Isele-uku junction ,Idimu Osunme ,and ran into blocks of shops in the popular Afianta market.
The truck crushed a popular female scavenger , Ekpele ,who was having her breakfast and injuring two others who were rushed to the hospital .
A witness ,Bewebiluenu ,said : ” I was standing opposite the market when I saw Ekpela, eating bread with a bottle of soft drink . It was around 8am, as I was taking the morning breeze ,I saw a fuel tanker driving dangerously and all of a sudden, it lost control and ran into the line of shops where Ekpele was eating .I knew that there was danger as I knew that Ekpele was gone .My fear was that many people would have died . We all ran to the scene , we saw Ekpele under the truck and saw two others bleeding .We sent distress calls to the Police and the Federal Road Safety Corps ( FRCN).The officials and the police came to the scene and discovered that one person died while two persons were injured .Even though we lost one person ,we are still thanking God that the accident happened at about 7.45 am ,because if it was around 10 am ,many people would have died as many people used to converge at the line of shops in the area”.
Mrs Uzo ,whose shop was pulled down by the truck ,was praising God for sparing her life and that of her children :” I thank God that my family was not yet in the shop before the accident occurred. If we had arrived the shop on time ,none of us would have survived .I thank God for sparing my family”.
A Road Safety Official who spoke on the condition of anonymity as he was not supposed to speak with the press said : ” I can only tell you that one person died and two people injured .We are taking the body to the mortuary while the injured have been taking to the hospital. The good thing is that the truck has already discharged the fuel it was loaded as it would have caught fire outbreak.I cannot tell you the cause of the accident .It may have been caused by break failure ,drunkenness ,over speeding or any other factor .Investigation will prove the real cause .The driver of the vehicle is in police protective custody for now”.
A patrol vehicle was manning the scene to protect the vehicle from being set ablaze by the angry mob who were protesting what they claimed was avoidable accident .
John Chukwuka said : ” We were happy that we celebrated Christmas without any unholy happenings ,today, this reckless truck driver has brought sorrow in the land .The woman that died was a had working woman who has three kids .How do we break the news to the children. We did a programme on the scene the previous day .We drank an threw away some cans,that was what Ekpele ,a scavenger went to pick ,but decided to eat when the unexpected happened. We are appealing to the Local Government authority to put speed breaker on the road to avoid over speeding by drivers “.
