At least one hundred people were killed when a trailer driver lost control of the truck as the brake failed close to a crowded market..

The berserk truck however ploughed into a crowded market after smashing all vehicles, motorcycle and other market wares and eventually plunged into a crowded market.

Security officials said 55 people died, but a BBC reporter at the scene, in  Alo village in the Dekina local government of Kogi state in the northern part of Nigeria counted at least 100 corpses.

Kogi state police said the lorry hurtled down a hill at  high speed, smashing cars and motorcycles then crashing into the market, injuring up more than 40 people.

A BBC report deplored that traffic accidents are a common occurrence in Nigeria due to lack of maintenance of roads and vehicles with little attention given by the authority.

“I can only confirm that 55 people were killed. The driver of the truck lost control and ran into a group of people moving in a procession along the road,” a senior police officer told AFP news agency.

Burned beyond recognition

Kogi state commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission, Yomi Asaniyan, said brake failure was the cause of the accident.

Declaring three days of mourning, Ibrahim Idris, the governor of Kogi state, expressed his sadness and offered to pay the medical bills of those injured.

The  State Governor who hurriedly visited the scene of the accident, could not hold back his emotion and broke down in tears after seeing the gory sight of the accident.

He quickly declared a three-day mourning beginning on Saturday.

The governor also directed that the injured be quickly moved to the Lokoja Specialist Hospital and those whose conditions were critical be flown abroad for medical attention

Eyewitnesses told Nigeria’s Sunday Trust newspaper that the market in Allo village in the Dekina area was filled to capacity when it was rammed by the lorry.

A number of vehicles caught fire, burning people beyond recognition. It is not yet clear whether the accident happened on Friday or Saturday.

Only last week, more than 20 people burned to death when a bus carrying mourners to a funeral collided with a truck on a road in Oyo state, south-west Nigeria.

Add source: BBCNews.

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