A total of 16 persons died while seven others were left injured on Saturday after a truck lost control and rammed into traders and pedestrians at Ibaka Market at Akungba Akoko, Akoko South-West Local Government Area of Ondo State, the FRSC has said.
Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Boboye Oyeyemi, stated this on Sunday while lamenting the huge loss of lives and damage to properties caused by the accident.
Oyeyemi, who spoke through a statement by Corps Public Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem, said the accident was caused by brake failure.
The statement reads, “The crash occurred at about 6:30pm on Saturday, 31 October, 2020, when a DAF truck loaded with bags of rice rammed into the stalls in the market and crashed into a Toyota Camry saloon car, Toyota Corolla and three motorcycles.
“The crash involved a total of 23 people comprising of 11 male adults, three male children, seven female adults, and two female children.
“Out of the 23 people involved, a total of seven people comprising of three male adults,
three female adults, and one male child were rescued with different degrees of injuries and taken to the hospital.
“While 16 people got killed comprising eight male adults, two male children, four female adults, and two female children and the dead bodies have been deposited at Specialist Hospital, Ikare, and General Hospital, Iwaro Oka, mortuaries respectively by FRSC emergency rescue teams.”
Oyeyemi thereafter urged the administrators of local governments in the country to begin relocating markets from the highways, noting that it would also help the existing operational efforts of the FRSC.
He added that the move was part of plans by the safety corps to make highways safer and eradicate all incidences of road traffic crashes and its attendant fatalities.
According to the Corps Marshal, the FRSC was concerned with the rising statistics of citizens losing their lives as a result of markets being built close to highways.
He advised road users to maintain their vehicles regularly and adhere to prescribed speed limits at all times.
