Disaster - Lorry kills pregnant woman, delivers her of premature twin foetus

It was tears, wailing and weeping on Wednesday, when the people of Oghara, in the Ethiope West Local Government  Area of Delta State, woke up to meet a sight of horror, they called a taboo in Urhobo Land, when a lorry, with no plate number, loaded to the brim with sharp sand, killed a pregnant woman, burst her belly and forced a twin foetus out of her womb. The accident also claimed the lives of two other men.

The two other men who lost their lives in the accident, are a rider of Yamaha motor cycle, popularly known as ‘’Okada”, with registration number QA737GRA, and his male passenger.

Another two commuters (men) who were also hit by the lorry are in critical condition and have been rushed to the Delta State University Hospital Oghara, were they are currently placed on intensive treatment.

Another woman and her son escaped by the whiskers, unhurt, as they were said to have seen the killer lorry on time and jumped out of the road, skipping over the road gutter.

The incident which occurred at about 7; 30Am on Wednesday along Oghara township dual carriage way, about the middle of the road, caused heavy traffic jam to motorist entering and leaving the town, due to the large number of sympathizers who trooped to the scene to catch a glimpse of the late woman and the set of twin foetus which laid in a pool of their blood, on the road side.

An eye witness account said the lorry was driving at a high speed along the ever busy Oghara township dual carriage way when one of its front tires (passenger side) exploded due the weight of the sand it was carrying, making its driver to swerve to the left and to the right, many times and in that process ran over the pregnant woman, killing her on the spot, with the twin foetus in her womb pressed out by the rear tyre of the lorry.

Another eye witness account said the lorry which belongs to a former Councillor of Ethiope local government council who is resident in Oghara, has been plyghing the road with high speed for a month now until yesterday incident.

The late pregnant woman, whose name was given as Esther, is said to be a staff of Ethiope West Local Government Council, worked in the sanitation unit and was on her daily duty of road side sweeping when the lorry smashed her to death.

The HPM and acting chairman of the council, Mr. Austine Maduku, could not be reached as at press time but a senior officer of the council who preferred not to be named, confirmed that the woman was on duty as at the time of her untimely death.

At 9.30 am when Vanguard visited the scene, the three corpses, save the set of the premature foetus left on the road side, were been taking to a morgue.

An elderly man in his 80s, who called himself as Ochuko, told this reporter that the death of the pregnant woman in such a state and circumstance was a taboo and that certain traditional rites might be performed to cleans the land, calling on the local and state government to construct speed breakers on the dual carriage way..