BY Tony Edike

ENUGU-last minute rush for the Muslim festival of Ed-il-Kabir turned tragic on two major federal highways in Enugu State at the weekend as no fewer than four persons lost their lives in two separate auto crashes.

Vanguard learnt that one of the accidents occurred on Friday at Ohebe-Dim axis of the 9th Mile Corner-Nsukka-Otukpo federal road in which three heavy duty vehicles collided near a mobile court set up by the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, to try traffic offenders.

The three vehicles crashed into one another and headed straight into the bush where they fell headlong.

Goods were being evacuated from one of the vehicles on Saturday when another mishap took place along the Onyeama Coal Mine end of the Onitsha- Enugu-Port Harcourt federal highway leading to loss of lives.

An eyewitness said it was a head-on collision by two commuter buses which were moving at high speed in the opposite direction on one lane of the dual carriage way which had been undergoing rehabilitation since last year and causing multiple confusion and crashes in the process.

Officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission in Enugu were said to have deposited the corpses of the victims at the National Orthopedic Hospital, Enugu, where some passengers are also being treated for injuries sustained in the crashes.