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By Young E. Freeborn, Warri
An old bridge bestriding the Unenurhie river in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State, and forming a boundary between Unenurhie and Evwreni communities, along the East-West road, has again claimed more lives.
According to locals, the bridge, which was badly affected by the ravaging floods of 2022, had become a death trap, leading to the loss of lives of unfortunate road users.
A recent accident that occurred along the same death trap few days ago, which involved a truck, claimed the life of the driver while his assistant, popularly called ‘motor boy’ sustained “serious injuries.”
An eyewitness told our correspondent that the accident occurred in the dead hour of the night, while decrying the many bad spots along sections of the East-West federal road from Port Harcourt to Ughelli.
The eyewitness said the more worrisome were the bad bridges along the road, as he called on the Federal Government to immediately award those bad bridges for repairs to avoid the incessant motor accidents along the road.
In the same way, drivers and sympathizers that gathered at the scene of the accident also blamed the immediate past federal administration, especially the federal ministries of the Niger Delta Affairs and Works, for their negligence over the welfare of Nigerians, especially with regard to the maintenance of roads and sustenance of other social amenities in the region.
They however called on the present Bola Tinubu-led administration to give immediate attention to all the bad spots on the road especially the bad bridges which served as death traps for innocent road users.
President-General of Unenurhie community, Mr. Peter Maison, expressed his “sympathies and condolences to the families of those that died on this bad bridge.
“As a host community, since the flood destroyed the bridge, we have tried the little we can to block the road on the side of the bridge and to also install danger signals, but all these our efforts yielded little or no results. Most drivers, especially those of trucks, carelessly and ignorantly use the bad road without watching for danger signals.
“Therefore, I want to call on the Federal Government to immediately give attention to all these bad bridges. They are really claiming lots of lives and destruction of vehicles on daily basis. This is also badly affecting us as the host community. Like in this very accident case that happened now, our youths were on the watch all through the night till this morning. The Federal Government should repair these bad bridges to avoid these everyday accidents.”
However, efforts to reach the state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Bright Edafe, for comments proved abortive as at the time of filing this report.
