Sixteen persons were on Tuesday night burned to death in an accident that occurred along the busy Ore-Ondo highway in the Ajue area of Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State.

The accident occurred when an 18-seater Toyota Hiace passenger bus had a head-on collision with a heavy-duty truck, which resulted in fire.

With three injured in the fatal crash, the commercial bus, according to an eyewitness account, was travelling at high speed when it attempted to overtake another vehicle, leading to a direct collision with the oncoming truck.

“The driver of the bus was over-speeding when he overtook a vehicle in front of him. But when he realised that it was too late for him to make it, he could not avoid the truck and rammed into it. The impact was so severe that it resulted in an immediate fire, trapping many passengers inside the vehicle.”

Confirming the accident, the Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in the state, Samuel Ibitoye, attributed the cause of the accident to over-speeding and wrongful overtaking.

The Sector Commander, who urged motorists to adopt a defensive driving approach, stressed the need for not just obeying speed limits but also drivers to be aware and always at alert of other vehicles’ movements on the road.

Ibitoye, who stated that two individuals survived the accident, said the response and rescue operation ended at 11:00 p.m..