Tragedy hits Anambra, car crushes seven Awka pupils

Tragedy hit Anambra State on Thursday at the Umuokpu Junction along the old Onitsha-Enugu Expressway, Awka, when a Toyota Camry lost control and ran into about 30 students of the Community Secondary School, Umuokpu, Awka, and Union Secondary School, Amawbia.

About seven of the students were feared to have been killed in the accident, while 10 others were critically injured, with head, limb and body injuries.

The students had just closed from school and were waiting in their numbers to board a bus home at the spot where the accident occurred when the car ran into them.

One of the victims was an old man, who had his right leg broken, his right eyes cut open and a whitish substance oozing out of his forehead.

One of the students feared to have been killed in the accident was crushed in the head.

Another of the victims was trapped under the belly of a commercial bus that tried to avoid colliding with the ill-fated Toyota Camry.

The car also crushed the stands of people selling fruits, food items and recharge cards around the scene of the accident and left several women injured.

The entire atmosphere was charged as sympathisers, amid crying, scampered about to rescue the victims. The road was littered with items, fruits and destroyed tables and umbrellas on which they were previously placed.

The driver of the car, who was also injured in the accident, was able to climb out of the mangled car. He went back inside the car, retrieved some valuables and crossed the road to catch a cab to wherever he was headed.

Men of the Federal Road safety Corps arrived the scene 20 minutes afterwards. But the victims had been taken away to nearby hospitals, one of them was the Enugwu-Ukwu General Hospital. The FRSC men proceeded to tow the car away.

The Anambra State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Mr. Hyginus Omeje, who confirmed the story of the accident, said he was waiting for his men to give him the details of the accident.

The Old Onitsha–Enugu road has become the preferred alternative route to the dualised expressway for many motorists after the state government reconstructed it.