A family of eight traveling home for the New Year celebration has died in an auto crash at the Amanwozuzu junction in the Ikeduru Local Government Area of Imo state.
The incident, occurring around 3 pm on Friday, has instilled anxiety in the locality.
Reports state that the father of the family, transporting his wife and children in a Sienna vehicle, collided with a stationary truck loaded with rods.
Eyewitnesses and responding police officers reported that the rods pierced the bodies of the victims, resulting in their immediate demise. The vehicle had to be dismantled to extract the lifeless bodies of the family members.
At the time of compiling this report, officers from the Ikeduru Local Government Area Division had transported the deceased to a morgue. Lucky Ahiole, a Chief Superintendent of Police and the Divisional Police Officer for Ikeduru LGA, indicated that the stationary truck was parked at the roadside when the Sienna driver collided with it.
Ahiole said, “It is terrible. Eight died and we have taken them to a morgue. We had to break the Sienna vehicle to bring out the dead bodies. The rod pierced their eyes and bodies and even the children died.”
However, an eyewitness said that the stationary truck, loaded with rods, obstructed the road, emphasizing that the unfortunate incident might have been preventable had the truck not been parked on the roadway.