By Ijendu Iheaka
December 9, 2016
An early morning Umuahia-Port Harcourt- bound train with number 2212 ran into an articulated vehicle on Friday in Aba damaging itself and the vehicle but with no casualties recorded.
However, the accident having damaged the electrical connections in the train’s engine left it immovable and blocking a larger part of the road which crippled traffic for many hours in the city.
The accident also rendered businessmen and women and workers stranded in a long traffic gridlock that made it hard for them to attend to their businesses.
A witness who spoke to our reporter at the accident site said it happened at about 5:45 am on Friday.
Mr Cyril Ohaegbu, a bread seller whose shop is by the Railway Flagmen office said he had resumed for business when the accident happened on the GRA / Eziukwu level crossing.
Ohaegbu noted that policemen were conducting a stop and search at a spot very close to the railway track when the accident occured.
“The driver of the articulated vehicle was being stopped by the police and he refused to stop but when he reached a point, he became confused because of the intensity of the moving train’s horn.
“Because his vehicle is the long type, he did not know whether to go forward or backward so he stopped there and ran away. That is why the train hit his vehicle”, he said.
Ohaegbu said that some flagmen were at work when the accident occurred but could not say why they were unable to stop the accident.
Another witness, Okechukwu Igwe, who is a ticket issuer for commercial buses, said he was close at Mr Biggs eatery when the accident occurred.
He said that the accident had caused much confusion and left people stranded on the road and unable to decide whether they should continue their journey or return to their homes.
Mr Okechukwu Ebere, said he came to repair his tyre before the incident happened in the area.
“Policemen were flagging the driver of the articulated vehicle down but he refused to stop, perhaps thinking they were going to collect money from him as they do often even from tricyclists and other drivers there.
“At a point when the vehicle had passed the train track with part of its body, the vehicle stopped but could not start again. He made efforts to start it but it did not work so he ran away leaving the vehicle on the train tracks where the train came and hit it.
“That was why after the accident the police took the vehicle driver’s companion and his little boy brother and locked them in the cell.
The policemen who were there were stopping him and as he was struggling with stopping or moving he now entered the train tracks where his vehicle failed to start again causing the accident”, he narrated said.
Ebere said that the problem was caused because the railway level crossings in Aba had lost their Boom Barriers which bar vehicles from crossing when trains are approaching.
He urged government and NRC to that replace the Boom Barriers to save the lives of residents.
Efforts to speak with the Nigerian Railway Staff in Aba failed as the PRO, Mr Israel Uwalekwu declined comment on the accident.
The Abia State Police PRO, ASP Ogbonnaya Nta said the Police Command believed that the incident happened on Thursday.
He astressed that it was the vehicle that hit the train and not train that hit the vehicle as witnesses observed.
Nta also said the command does not have any official report on the accident sying that the two persons the police arrested from the articulated vehicle Friday morning might have been arrested by the Railway Police which is different from them.
No comments:
Post a Comment