At least four persons have reportedly lost their lives, while five others injured Saturday evening, when a driver of an articulated vehicle lost control after a brake failure and crashed at Tipper garage junction of Dutsen along the Dutsen-Bwari highway in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) FCT.
Witnesses said the incident took place around some minutes to 6 pm and that the ill-fated trailer ran over some commercial tricycles that parked near Shafa filling station close to the junction.
Residents said the accident site has long been a danger zone due to the the difficult terrain, with multiple fatal accidents recorded there in the past.
The unit commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in charge of the Dutsen-Alhaji, Luka Wuna Friday, confirmed the accident on phone, saying that four persons, comprising of a female and three males died instantly from the accident, while five others were injured.
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The FRSC official said the trailer, loaded with the street electrical poles, failed brake and the driver, who was heading towards Dutsen-Alhaji, lost control.
He said the trailer, in the process, crushed five commercial tricycles that parked to load passengers at the junction.
Abuja Metro further learnt that, as some volunteers were struggling to remove two persons trapped in the truck, a convoy of the military vehicles, who arrived at the scene from the Bwari axis, attempted to move through the available single lane opened for the motorists.
“They were pelted by some angry youth and in retaliation, the security personnel shot fire toward some of the boys, killing one of them and injuring one other,’’ one of the witnesses alleged.
The FRSC commander said the injured persons were taken to the Kubwa General Hospital, while the five damaged tricycles were handed over to the Ushafa police division.
Efforts were still on by the FRSC personnel to remove the truck from the scene as at yesterday afternoon when Abuja Metro visited the scene.
