A catastrophic road crash claimed the lives of six individuals on Thursday following a violent head-on collision between a trailer and a Canter truck along the busy Potiskum-Damaturu highway.
Preliminary reports from traffic monitoring body Fairview Africa indicate that the crash was caused when the driver of the Canter truck allegedly veered into the opposing lane, driving against the established flow of traffic. This fatal error resulted in a direct collision with the oncoming heavy-duty trailer.
The force of the impact was devastating, causing the trailer to overturn and pin its occupants. Responders from the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) were forced to deploy a heavy-duty crane to the scene to lift the wrecked trailer and extricate those trapped inside. Tragically, four of the trailer’s occupants were pronounced dead at the scene.
The fatalities extended to the offending vehicle, with two passengers in the Canter truck also losing their lives. Amid the tragedy, there were two survivors. FRSC personnel successfully rescued these individuals, who sustained varying degrees of injury, and rushed them to a nearby hospital for urgent medical attention. Their current condition remains undisclosed.
The highway was partially closed for several hours as FRSC personnel conducted rescue operations, cleared the extensive wreckage, and initiated an investigation into the precise cause of the accident. The incident has reignited urgent concerns from road safety advocates about the perils of wrong-way driving and the need for stricter enforcement on major highways.
