Five occupants of a Toyota Sienna sport utility vehicle (SUV) with registration number (Enugu) MH 630 UWN have reportedly died in an accident when the vehicle rammed into a stationary truck.
The incident, it was gathered, occurred at Umunka village on the Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway.
The Aba Unit of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) said it had not received information on the incident.
But a worker at the Federal Government agency, who spoke in confidence, said the unit had dispatched a patrol team to the Aba-Port Harcourt axis of the expressway to investigate the accident.
Eyewitnesses said five passengers in the SUV died on the spot.
One of them, who gave his name simply as Fred, said: “We were all here and the next thing we heard was a loud bang.
“By the time we got there, we saw the light green Sienna trapped under the truck which had been stationary there for some time. From the way it happened, it looked like either the driver lost control of the vehicle or his mind was not on where he was driving to. It could also be that he was not familiar with the road.
“But like every driver who is not familiar with a road, the person should not have been driving recklessly. The incident happened in the afternoon, making us to wonder why the accident happened.
“Though a lot of people said the driver may have noticed very late that the truck was stationary, others suggested that it could be the result of brake failure.
“The question is: if the truck owner failed to indicate that the truck broke down with the usual green leaves dropped on the road, how did the driver ram into the truck to have such impact on the car and the passengers, if he was not on top speed?
“The car stuck deep into the stationary truck that we had to call for the assistance of another truck to pull the Sienna out of the other truck to see if there were people that could be saved. But when that finally happened, no passenger in the Sienna was alive.”
