Eighteen persons reportedly lost their lives while one other suffered burns in a road crash which occurred on Monday.
The accident was said to have occurred at RCC Yard axis along Ijebu-Ode -Benin -Ore Expressway. It involved a commercial Toyota Hiace bus with number plate XA 690 AKU.
The sad incident occurred at 3.30pm.
The ill-fated bus, which NOTM online gathered was travelling to Lagos from the Eastern part of the country fell on its side at a failed portion of the road, and later caught fire in the process when the Premium Motor Spirit popularly known as petrol in a jerry-can on board the bus spilled on the already hot exhaust pipe of the vehicle.
The Public Relations Officer of Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency, TRACE, Mr Babatunde Akinbiyi told NOTM online that 19 passengers were inside the bus including the driver during the incident but only the driver escaped with burns.
He said, “According to an eyewitness account and corroborated by the driver, there was a keg full of PMS inside the bus when it fell on its side when the vehicle got to a failed portion of the road.
“The PMS poured on the floor of the bus and later dropped on the hot exhaust pipe and caused the vehicle to catch fire.
“Eighteen passengers were burnt beyond recognition, only the driver escaped.”
He said injured driver was rescued and rushed to Rona Hospital in Ijebu Ode and the corpses of the victims had been deposited at State Hospital mortuary, Ijebu Ode by operatives of the Federal Road Safety Corps.
