An 18-seater Toyota Hiace bus, registered KTG 283 XA, has crashed into the busy Damagum market in Yobe State, resulting in the deaths of five people, including a pregnant woman, and injuring 19 others.
The incident occurred on Sunday evening as pedestrians were leaving the market. According to Livinus Yilzoom, the Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Yobe, the driver of the bus, in an attempt to avoid hitting pedestrians, lost control due to excessive speed and veered into a group of people standing by the roadside.
Yilzoom confirmed that the five fatalities were not passengers of the vehicle but pedestrians, who were waiting to cross the road at the time of the crash. “The driver, in trying to avoid the pedestrians, ran into five people who were killed as he lost control due to the speed he was traveling,” he said.
Following the crash, the FRSC’s Unit Command at Dogon Kuka immediately dispatched a crash investigation team to the scene, and the victims were rushed to the Damagum General Hospital for medical treatment.
Preliminary investigations indicated that the primary causes of the accident were speed limit violations and the driver’s loss of control. Eyewitnesses have also raised concerns about the increasing number of markets located along highways in various communities, particularly on market days, which they say contributes to such accidents.
