Only three people survived the accident, all occupants of the truck since the 18 passengers on the bus, which was speeding when the driver lost control on a highway in the state of Bauchi, died in the accident and subsequent fire.
The official ruling notes that the bus driver was speeding when he lost control and crashed head-on into the truck.
Late last December, what was thought to be a folk festival in a Nigerian town turned into an ordeal for its participants on December 28 when a runaway car interrupted it, killing seven people.
The initial assessment of the disaster revealed that the driver lost control of the car and the ongoing meeting rammed it at high speed on a road in the city of Calabar, Cross River state, injuring several people.
After the tragedy, the landscape was desolate due to bodies strewn around the area, groans and calls for help from the injured, according to survivors.
The street parties were part of the biker spectacle, one of the main attractions of the carnival, where Nigerians show off their skills and whose colors have drawn visitors from the rest of the country and neighboring states for more than two decades.
Traffic accidents on African roads and rivers are so frequent and their cost to life and property so enormous that the World Health Organization (WHO) has classified them as an epidemic.
Disobeying traffic rules, the poor condition of roads and vehicles, congestion are some of the most common causes of these disasters, which include rivers, according to statistics.
Earlier this morning, rescuers helping shipwrecked people in a river in northern Nigeria’s Kebi state announced the rescue of 10 bodies, a preliminary figure as the search for more victims continues.
According to press reports from one of the volunteer divers performing the dramatic task, we are searching for at least 10 other bodies.
According to witnesses, the disaster happened when the boat carrying about 100 people between the two banks of the Niger River broke in two in the middle of the stormy waters near the village of Samanaji in Koko-Besse district.
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