Tragedy ensued recently along Iwo-Ibadan Road in Osun after four members of the same family– a father, mother and their two kids– were crushed to death by a truck laden with bags of rice.
The victims, Mr. and Mrs. Olumide Bankole, their children, Sharon and Shama, were crushed to death by the truck which lost control in an attempt to avoid running into a queue of vehicles on the road due to a police checkpoint.
It was gathered that the family was traveling from Ogbomoso in Oyo State to Ibadan when the accident occurred around Odo Oba River on Christmas Eve.
An eyewitness told Punch that the car in which the family was travelling was coming from Iwo and heading towards Ibadan, while the truck was coming from Ibadan.
The witness said, “The car in which the victims were travelling was coming from the opposite direction and after the police had checked him, he moved, but a trailer which was loaded with bags of rice lost control and fell on the car.
“The truck was on top speed. The driver saw a long queue of vehicles caused by the police checkpoint. The driver did not want to ram into the vehicles on the queue and veered off the lane. That was when the car was cleared to go.
“The driver of the car saw the truck and drove into the bush. The truck driver, however, lost control and fell on the car.
“The driver of the car, his wife and two children, including a baby, were all dead by the time they were rescued from under the truck.”
He added that the victims were trapped under the truck for close to five hours before their mangled bodies were removed by rescuers.
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