Scene of the accident.

No fewer than 22 persons were burnt to death in an early morning accident involving a truck and a commercial bus at Amurin-Owo, Ondo State, on Tuesday.

Three passengers also sustained injuries in the accident that was said to have occurred at about 1.30am.

Our correspondent learnt that the accident occurred when the driver of the Isuzu truck with Lagos registration number CV 624 KTU was avoiding a pothole and had a head-on collision with the oncoming bus.

The truck was said to be conveying aluminium rods from Lagos to Abuja.

The truck and the Toyota Hiace bus marked Kogi XA 666 KHS were said to be on high speed at the time of the accident. Both of them were completely burnt with only their carcasses on the road.

The charred remains of the victims were later recovered from the two vehicles by a combined team of policemen and officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission.

They were piled on one another by the road side awaiting evacuation to a site for mass burial.

The three survivors were later taken to the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, for medical attention.

The Divisional Police Officer of ‘B’ Division, Owo, Mr. Garba Umaru, a chief superintendent of police, and the FRSC Unit Commander in Owo, Mr. Segun Sanmi, led the rescue operation.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Ondo State Command, Mr. Aremu Adeniran, confirmed the accident and the casualty figure to our correspondent on the telephone.

Adeniran said the command would investigate the accident with a view to ascertaining the cause.

Efforts were also being made to trace the take-off points of the vehicles with the aim of tracing the victims’ relations.

An FRSC source said the commission would rely on the duplicate of the passengers’ manifest expected to be left at the motor park where the bus took off from to ascertain their identities and trace their relations.

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