10 die in Bauchi auto crash

Posted by admin Bauchi, Headlines, State News Friday, December 24th, 2010

TEN persons were confirmed dead, while 10 others were critically injured in an auto crash which occured in the early hours of Thursday on the Darazo-Bauchi road.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the victims were members of a cultural troupe.

Head of Operations, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Bauchi sector command, Haruna Bashir, told NAN that seven of the dead persons were burnt beyond recognition.

He said 10 occupants of the 18-seater bus, with registration number “Al-Bishir 2011, sustained various degrees of injuries.

Bashir said the corpses had been deposited at the mortuary of Abubakar Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi while those injured were responding to treatment.

He said the driver of the ill-fated bus tried to avoid an oncoming Toyota Starlet car at a bend in Zungoro village before it plunged into a ditch.

Bashir, who blamed the accident on overspeeding, said the bus, which carried an electric generating set and speakers, caught fire immediately.

One Ibrahim Husseini told NAN that he lost three brothers he named as Yelwa, Gabur and Yahaya, as well as a 70-year old father to the accident.

Husseini said the cultural troupe was hired by Alhaji Hassan Junga, a House of Representatives aspirant for Patiskum/Nangere constituency in Yobe, on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).wp_posts