Tragedy struck in Ilorin, Kwara state over the weekend when a taxi driver suffering from epilepsy reportedly rammed his cab into an oncoming trailer, which ran over the taxi and instantly killed all five occupants who are reported to be students, including the driver.
It was gathered that the four other victims were students of the Mass Communications Department of the Kwara State Polytechnic, said to be returning home after finishing their examinations.They were said to have boarded the taxi from the polytechnic gate to Oke-Ose area, on the outskirts of Ilorin, where the students reside.
The victims had reportedly said they would travel to Lagos on that fateful day to meet their families, having completed their examinations. Eyewitness accounts said that the driver was seen behaving strangely behind the wheel after he took off from the polytechnic gate, and had to force the cab to a stop, a development that prompted the students to disembark from the cab.
However, following the interventions of passers-by and other colleagues of the driver, the students agreed to continue the journey. The driver was also reported to have said he would go home and take care of himself immediately he dropped off the students.
But after driving for a few kilometres, it was gathered that the driver suffered a seizure, while the taxi was on top speed.
The cab, which lost control, initially hit a vulcanizer’s machine, which was by the roadside, before it swerved to the other side of the road, this time in front of an oncoming trailer, which crushed all the five occupants. Sympathisers at the scene of the accident used an axe to cut through the squeezed taxi cab to remove the remains of the students and the taxi driver. The corpses had been deposited at the nearby University of Ilorin Teaching hospital mortuary.