Three persons were on Saturday evening reported killed in an auto accident on the Agbarho Bridge, around Agbarhor/Okuokoko length of the East-West Expressway, Ughelli North council area of Delta state.
The victims of the accident were technical staffs of an indigenous construction company, who were returning from an assignment in Bayelsa when the accident happened.
According to sources, there were six persons inside the Land Cruiser Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) when it swerved off, broke a side rail of the bridge and plunged into the river.
Three of the occupants were rescued alive by divers who swung into action almost immediately the accident occurred. The other three were not as lucky as neither the divers, nor the official rescue teams of the Red Cross, police and Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) could immediately retrieve their bodies.
One of the survivors, who preferred anonymity said that they were returning from Bayelsa state where they had gone to fix one of their companyโs faulty trucks.
Narrating how the accident happened, another survivor who identified himself simply as Freeborn said โWe were returning from Bayelsa State when the Jeep suddenly stopped working on top of the bridge. The steering and the brake refused to work and the vehicle fell into the river.
โThe driver was not on speed. We had barely dropped one of our colleagues who live in Agbarho at the junction close to the bridge when the jeep plunged into the river. We were coming from work. We were all mechanics and electricians. We only stopped at Evwreni to eat and no one took drinkโ, he explained.
The white SUV, with registration number Abuja DK 653 ABC, in which the victims were travelling, was however recovered and evacuated on Sunday by a team of professional divers, with the help of a train loader to a Police Station in Agbarho.
When contacted, the Delta State Police Commissioner, Muhammad Mustafa, confirmed the incident, adding that three persons survived the accident and had been discharged from the hospital where they were rushed to.
The police chief stated that efforts were still on to recover the bodies of the remaining victims who allegedly drown in the process.
