Driver, assistants rescued as truck crashes into building

A driver and his two assistants whose truck crashed into a three-storey building at the weekend, have been rescued alive in Madalla town of Niger State.

It was gathered that the truckers were coming from Kaduna and heading to Zuba, when the driver tried to dodge a vehicle at the scene of a similar truck crash last Thursday that was yet to be evacuated, but lost control. They crashed into the building which was only some metres away from Zuma Rock, on the Abuja/Kaduna highway.

A witness, Abel Ebere, who lives in the building told City News that he was woken up by the noise of the crash, which occurred around 6am on Saturday.

He said he rushed from the first floor, where he stayed, to the scene where he saw the crashed truck and bags of sachet water scattered on the ground.

“I later learnt that the water sachets were from a pickup van which the truck driver had tried to avoid,” he said.

The Head of Search and Rescue Operation, of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Abuja, Labaran Ahman, said on arriving at the scene, they found that the truck driver had been rescued by by-standers and the agency conveyed him to Abuja University Teaching hospital in Gwagwalada.

He said the two assistants were rescued around 10:45 am and 11:47am respectively, from the rubble and also taken to hospital.

Ahman gave the names of the driver and assistants as Sulaiman Ohonsi, Musa Umar and Ibrahim Nuhu.

It was further learnt that a towing vehicle deployed by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) to pull out the truck was unable to do that, as rubble from the affected building kept dropping on the trapped victims.

The truck was eventually cleared off the road and the affected lane reopened to motorists in an operation that involved the security and rescue personal services, comprising NEMA, FEMA, FCT Fire Service, FRSC, NSCDC, and NPF.