Calamity struck yesterday when a normal
occurrence of a traffic jam resulted in the
unexpected deaths of two bus passengers.
The duo, who are yet to be identified,
reportedly died of exhaustion while
trapped in a traffic gridlock atop the Niger
Bridge in Onitsha, Anambra State
The deceased, a little child and a middle-
aged man, had reportedly spent long
uncomfortable hours in the vehicles
conveying them to their destinations and
this resulted in their deaths.
Vanguard reports:
Vanguard sources, however, said that the
deceased whose identities were not
immediately known was a minor who
was coming back with his mother in a
commercial bus from Lagos, while the
second victim, was a trader who travelled
all the way from the North to Onitsha to
sell his goods.
It was learnt that while the small child
died instantly on her mother’s lap at the
Bridge, the business man died minutes
after crossing the bridge to Onitsha from
the North. It was alleged that the child
had cried for a long time due to heat in
the vehicle while waiting to cross the
bridge before the mother eventually
discovered that her child was no longer
breathing.
The bewildered mother was said to have
become hysterical as she burst into tears
running helter-skelter when she
discovered that her child whom she
thought fell asleep was actually dead.
The trader was also said to have boarded
the vehicle from the North and travelled
smoothly until the Asaba end of the
Bridge where they spent several hours
under the scorching heat in an attempt to
cross the Niger Bridge. An eye witness
account said that the victim and other
passengers with him in the vehicle had
already crossed the bridge and was
offloading his goods from the vehicle
when he suddenly slumped and died.
The Federal Government had repeatedly
promised in the last 10 years to build a
second Niger Bridge to ease traffic
congestion on the bridge which is the
gateway from the Lagos and other South-
west states to the South-east and South-
South.
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