By Dayo Johnson , Akure

AT least 18 persons lost their lives in an auto crash that occurred on  Ilesa-Owo Expressway yesterday.
Several other persons were injured  in the crash involving an 18-seater bus and a luxury  bus marked XR 521ABC which was on its way from Lagos to Kano.

An eyewitness  said  the accident occurred when the 18-seater bus marked XA 966LSR coming from Abuja lost a tyre  while  on  motion.

It was learnt that only the driver of the luxury  bus died while all the passengers in the 18-seater bus were killed  on the spot. A source said that while the driver of the 18-seater bus was trying to park the bus to replace the lost tyre, the luxury bus ran into it.

One of the survivors  told newsmen in Akure that they saw a woman with a baby trying to cross the road before the crash occurred. That was the time the bus lost a tyre.

“By the time we all disembarked from the bus to fix the tyre, the woman was nowhere to be found,”the eye witness said.
Sunday Vanguard learnt that immediately the accident happened, some of the survivors rushed to the  office of the FRSC that
was about a kilometer from the scene of the accident but the officials there did not respond on time.
Ondo State Police Command confirmed the crash.

According the image maker of the command, Adeniran Aremu,  immediately the accident happened, the men of the Ijapo Police  Station moved to the scene and rescued the survivors.