Eight persons, on Thursday afternoon, escaped death at the Kwata axis of the Enugu-Onitsha expressway in Awka, the Anambra State capital, when a trailer collided with a shuttle bus.

It was gathered that the trailer which was fully loaded with bags of food items was heading to Onitsha before the broken system failed to respond on sloppy part of the road and it rolled backwards, crashing into the shuttle bus behind.

The collision damaged the passenger’s front side beyond repairs.

The driver of the Shuttle Bus, Mr Igenus Odeh while regretting the incident, thanked God that none of his seven passengers died apart from minor injuries two of them sustained.

Speaking shortly after inspecting the scene, the state Commissioner for Works, Mr Marcel Ifejiofor, who blamed drivers on poor maintenance of their vehicles, advised them to examine their vehicles and regularly maintain them before plying the highways to avoid preventable crashes and loss of lives.

He apologized to the road users on the inconveniences caused them by the incident as the trailer blocked the axis of the highway for over an hour.

Also speaking, the Commandant Anambra Traffic Management Agency, Mr Chidi Umezinwa, warned commuters on acts that could lead to unnecessary gridlock on the highways especially as Christmas season approaches.

As at the time of filing in this report, men of the Nigerian police force, Road Safety, and ATMA were seen at the scene diverting vehicles to other parts of the road, while the driver of the trailer was not on sight to talk to the press as he was said to be making arrangements on how to toll the vehicle off the highway.

•Sourced from Tribune report