Three passengers lost their lives while two others were injured when a Volvo truck collided with a Nissan Micra taxi at Ayedere, Obada, Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State on Sunday morning.
A traffic report from the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps stated that the driver of the truck drove against the traffic and collided with the taxi painted in Ogun commercial vehicle colour travelling outbound Abeokuta on its rightful lane.
It was gathered that the sad incident happened around 7.30 am.
The Public Relations Officer, TRACE, Mr Babatunde Akinbiyi said the Volvo truck number plate is AKM 489 ZY while that of the Nissan (Micra) is AKM 232 YQ.
Akinbiyi said the victims who were in the Nissan Micra were workers of Dahua Paper Mills located inside Obasanjo Farms, Obada, adding that they were going to work.
He said, “According to an eyewitness account, the driver of the Volvo truck was driving in a direction prohibited by traffic law, route violation/one-way, inbound Abeokuta, on speed, before he lost control and rammed into the Nissan-Micra taxi, in a head-on collision.
“This led to the death of three passengers in the taxi immediately, due to the impact of the collision while two others were injured and one of them went into a coma.
“It was later confirmed that the four passengers in the Nissan Micra taxi, among which three of them lost their lives in the avoidable auto crash, are workers of DAHUA PAPER MILLS, inside Obasanjo Farms, Obada, and were on their way to work when the incident happened.”
The TRACE spokesman however said, the driver of the truck ran away as an angry mob gave him a hot chase but the abandoned truck was set ablaze.
Duty Traffic officers were said to have been attacked at the scene by the mob who were irked by the conduct of the driver of the truck.
Akinbiyi said after about seven hours of protest by the mob, they left and the safety officers were able to evacuate the two vehicles from the scene to the Obada Oko Police Station, which is about 200 metres away.
Meanwhile, while TRACE commiserates with families of the deceased, it warned drivers of articulated vehicles against speeding and route violation in view of its attendant consequences.