By Ugochukwu Alaribe

ABA—But for providence,  not less than 20 hawkers at the Factory Road railway crossing, Aba, Abia State, would have on December 9, 2016, lost their lives as a train rammed into a truck on the ever busy road.

A  driver and the conductor of an articulated truck with registration number, Lagos APP 153 XL,  at about 6am,    had attempted to wade through the railway crossing without knowing that the train was on track.

The train and the truck at Factory Road railway crossing, in Aba

It was  gathered that the passenger train was on its way to  Port Harcourt, Rivers State,  when it rammed into the oncoming truck.    A restaurant operator in the area, who gave her name as Nneka told South East Voice that had the train been  speeding or had the accident occurred around 7am, not less than 20 hawkers who sell goods on the track, would have been crushed.

She said, “I was opening my restaurant at the ITC motor park when I heard a bang and people shouted that an accident had occurred involving a train and a truck. We thank God that no life was lost.

If the train was on speed or had the incident occurred around 7am when the railway crossing is usually filled with hawkers and motorists, many people would have been crushed to death. From 7am, there is usually heavy gridlock at the railway crossing, you can imagine what would have happened if the accident occurred at the peak time.”

Heavy gridlock

The accident caused heavy gridlock on the road as commuters trekked long distances before boarding buses to their respective destinations. Some motorists diverted to Okigwe road causing heavy gridlock in the area.  A suspected Railway Policeman had attempted to seize the reporter’s camera, but was resisted.

A cross section of motorists who spoke to South East Voice  berated the attitude of some of the train drivers who would not blare horns until they approach the railway  crossing and called on the railway authorities to check the trend.

They recalled a similar incident which occurred at the Okigwe road and Ama Ogbonna railway crossing where a train had crashed into a car conveying a family of four and another vehicle belonging to mobile policemen, respectively, leaving them injured. However, attempts to speak with the authorities of the National Railway Corporation, NRC, in Aba, proved abortive.