A middle-aged trader, Kenneth Okorie, his pregnant wife, two children, a house help and a relation narrowly escaped being crushed to death in an auto crash after a lorry rammed into the car they were traveling in.
The incident occurred on Sunday at about 9.30am on the Umuahia- Okigwe end of the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, a few kilometers before the NNPC Mega filling station.
The Arondizogu born-trader, who is based in Okigwe, Imo State, was said to be traveling to Ihiteuboma near Umuahia to attend a child dedication ceremony of a friend when the incident occurred.
Speaking with our correspondent at the scene of the incident, Okerie, a Knight of the Catholic Church, said the Mercedes Benz the family was travelling in was driven by his wife when the incident occurred.
He said, “My wife wanted to overtake a lorry loaded with groundnuts when suddenly two commuter buses belonging to Peace Mass Transit Company cruising on top speed showed up from the opposite direction.”
He said his wife attempted to avoid a head- on collision with the on-coming buses when the car accidentally hit the side of the lorry and both vehicles veered off the main road and plunged into the median of the dual-carriage highway.
The car was badly damaged as the lorry reportedly dragged the car onto the median, and almost squeezed it. The lorry also heaped bags of groundnuts on the roof, but none of the occupants sustained injuries.
Okerie attributed their escape to an “act of God”, while the wife, who was nervous, said God saved “the family from being wiped out”.
The driver of the lorry, Mr. Jimmy Chukwu, from Mgbowo in Enugu State, said he slowed down as he saw the two buses approaching from the opposite direction on top speed.
He said, “If the driver of the Benz were to be a man, he would have been, perhaps, brave enough to apply the brake and dodge the approaching buses instead of ramming into the lorry.”
The 43-year-old driver, who said he was conveying the groundnuts from Benue State to Aba when the accident occurred, added that it was good that that no life was lost.
