By Umar Bayo Abdulwahab
Ilorin
The biting fuel scarcity turned tragic yesterday as a passenger train from the northern part of the country, crushed two people who were queuing up at a filling station in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital.
The incident, which according to our correspondent, occurred at about 2.30 am yesterday, happened at a rail line around Sango area of the metropolis, bringing to four the number of people so far killed in the capital city while queuing to buy the commodity at different locations in the last three weeks.
While a taxi driver reportedly died naturally waiting to take his turn at a filling station in Okelele, the interior part of Ilorin, a commercial bicycle operator, popularly known as Okada, was also crushed by a truck while also on the queue to buy fuel.
Narrating yesterday’s incident to our reporter, an eye witness said the ill-fated Toyota Camry with three occupants, was right on the rail line queuing up for fuel at Okla Petroleum, along Zango area, and its occupants discussing with the car’s windscreens wound up.
“The train was blaring its horn but these people wound up the windscreen and could not even heard the shouts of everybody around trying to call their attention to the oncoming train. They were all engrossed in their discussion that they never knew the time the fast moving train got to them. Of the three people in the car, two died instantly while the third was quickly rushed to the hospital,” said the source.
The survivor, our source added was critically lying in an unknown hospital within the city as at the time of filing this report.
Scores of sympathisers scampered for safety and watched helplessly as the deafening impact of the train’s bang on the car filled the air.
The Kwara State sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Mr Sunday Maku said preliminary findings showed that the incident was caused by the motorists’ closeness to the rail track, adding that further investigation was still going on.
Several other motorists waiting to buy fuel left the filling station after the accident.
When contacted on phone, spokesman of the state Police Command, ASP Ajayi Okasanmi, said he had not been briefed about the incident as at the time of filing this report.
