New depressing details have emerged on the accident involving a Marcopolo bus belonging to Young Shall Grow Motors Limited in which 10 people died.
Media reports indicates that the bus driver allegedly smoked and drank during the journey and when cautioned by passengers, he threatened to deal with them. Some of the passengers allegedly called the telephone number of Young Shall Grow to complain about the driver’s recklessness, and the company reportedly promised to address the issue. It was gathered that when the passengers called back, the phone rang out several times before it was switched off until tragedy struck. It reported that about 42 passengers left the South-East for Lagos in the bus with number plate, SMK 867 XG. The bus driver was said to have rammed into a stationary truck around 5.30am on Monday, killing nine persons on the spot, while the 10th victim died in a hospital. One of the survivors, Godwin Ikechukwu, said the passengers left the Enugu park without any premonition that danger was ahead. He said, “We left Enugu in the night. Our bus was the third to leave the terminal. About 10 minutes after we left, the driver started driving recklessly and everybody on the bus were alarmed, telling him to slow down. The man did not listen to any of us; nobody was comfortable. When I could no longer bear it, I decided to bring out my payment receipt ticket, checked the telephone numbers and found the customer care contacts of Young Shall Grow Motors. I called and told them our experience. I said the driver taking us to Lagos was driving recklessly and the company should caution him. They asked for the number plate of the bus and I gave it to them. They said they would take care of it. When the man continued to drive recklessly, I decided to call them again. I called for more than 10 times, but they did not pick my calls. The next thing, their phone was switched off. Our ugly experience from Enugu continued to the point that nobody could sleep; we were all praying. The driver refused to listen to advice as he drank and smoked.”
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