No fewer than 18 people have lost their lives while 12 others sustained different degrees of injuries in an auto crash that occurred along the Kano-Ringim road in the Gabasawa local government area of Kano state.
Ibrahim Abdullahi, the Sector Commandant of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), in Kano, confirmed that the accident occurred on Friday evening.
He stated that the accident involved two commercial vehicles and blamed it on excessive speeding, risky driving, and overloading.
He said “We received a call about the accident at about 8:35 P. M. on Friday and dispatched our personnel to the scene to rescue the victims,”
“The accident involved a total of 35 passengers in two buses, out of which 18 were burnt beyond recognition while 12 others sustained serious injuries,’’
According to him, although some of the victims were buried in a mass grave at the accident site, others were turned over to families.
He further stated that the injured people were transferred to Kano’s Murtala Mohammed General Hospital.
During a visit to the crash scene on Saturday, the sector commander, who expressed regret at the number of avoidable road crashes recorded in Kano State in the past week, warned motorists, particularly intercity and interstate drivers, to avoid overloading, excessive speeding, wrongful overtaking, and other traffic offenses.
Abdullahi promised that the FRSC will increase public awareness and conduct severe patrol interventions, including the use of mobile courts, to stem the rising tide of intercity auto accidents.