By Tony Edike

ENUGU-AT least five persons were feared dead, yesterday, following a ghastly accident involving a commuter bus along the Nsukka-Ninth Mile Corner Expressway in Enugu State.

The bus conveying passengers from Enugu to Nsukka reportedly skidded off the road and crashed into the bush, somersaulting several times and uprooting several trees in the process.

An eyewitness said the gory sight at the scene of the crash made women, who rushed to the scene from a nearby village, to weep uncontrollably, even as other passengers and motorists stopped and assisted in rescuing the victims.

The vehicle, belonging to Eastern Gateway Mass Transit Limited, with serial number  19, was said to have conveyed passengers from their loading point in Enugu at about 11am, yesterday.

Although the cause of the accident was not immediately known, the eyewitness said the driver of the Toyota commuter bus may have lost control of the vehicle because of over-speeding.

The eyewitness said: “I personally watched one of the victims breath his last about six minutes after  he was brought out from the wreckage of the bus which was also carrying some  bags of flour. It was indeed a very fatal accident.”

According to him, two separate teams of policemen on patrol arrived the scene at about 12noon shortly after the wounded and dead  passengers were taken away to Bishop Shanahan Hospital, Nsukka.