Nine people lost their lives while eight others sustained varying degrees of injuries following a fatal road crash along the Bauchi–Maiduguri Federal Highway near Zangoro village in Bauchi State.
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) confirmed the incident in a First Information Report issued by the Bauchi Sector Command on Tuesday. According to the report, the accident occurred at about 11:20 p.m. on Monday, with the incident reported to the FRSC five minutes later.
Emergency responders arrived at the crash scene by 11:40 p.m., recording a response time of approximately 15 minutes. The collision involved a commercial Toyota bus bearing registration number DRZ 133 LG and a MAN diesel tipper truck transporting sand, which reportedly had no registration number.
Senior Road Marshal Assistant Suleiman Adamu Toro disclosed that all 17 occupants involved in the crash were adult males. He confirmed that nine victims were burnt beyond recognition after the collision, while the remaining eight sustained injuries of varying severity.
Preliminary investigations by the FRSC identified a tyre burst on the moving commercial bus as the likely cause of the accident, which led to the fatal collision. Following the incident, the damaged vehicles and recovered items were handed over to the Motor Traffic Division of the Bauchi State Police Command for further investigation.
FRSC officials later succeeded in identifying the victims on Tuesday. The injured survivors were taken to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital in Bauchi for medical treatment, while the bodies of those who died were deposited at the hospital’s morgue pending further arrangements.
