The police van which was carrying about five armed policemen was the last vehicle in a convoy of a top government official.
Some bystanders claimed the convoy was carrying the IG. However this could not be ascertained at the time of writing this, as the rest of the convoy did not stop but sped away.
Due to the ongoing construction of the road by Julius Berger, a large part of the road had been cordoned off, leaving only the partly constructed single outer lane for use. This lane is bothered by kerb, making buses that are soliciting for passengers to park on the narrow road.
At the time of occurrence, the last van on the convoy which was, as usual, on very high speed was passing through this crowded junction. There was a trailer going in the same direction and passing by a parked passenger bus. The van wanted to overtake the trailer by the right but the lane was too narrow to take all three vehicles at a time. If not for the high speed of the van it could have waited until the trailer passed the parked bus. The over-speeding police van was turned between hitting the trailer and causing more damage to itself or hitting the parked bus which was loading passengers. It choosed the latter. It hit the bus and flung it over the kerb, knocking it against the bystander who were waiting to board and finally came to rest on its side amidst screams, wailing, crunching and shattering noises. This poster was, himself, waiting to board a bus and was saved by a hair’s breadth in a fraction of a second when he turned and took to his heels as he saw the impact and the expected direction of the cannoned bus.
The injured included about four bystanders who were knocked senseless and may have sustained internal injuries in addition to the external ones. The passengers in the bus sustained non-fatal injuries and were badly shaken as they tried to escape through every opening in the shattered windows, since the bus was resting on its doorside. A particular fat elderly woman had a tough time been removed since the window frames were squeezed tighter by the crash.
The stronger van suffered a caved-in nose and spun 175 degrees sideways, but the policemen were unharmed.
Residences of airport road are no strangers to overspeeding convoys carrying government and foreign dignitaries to and fro the busiest airport in the country every minute of the day. Also accidents have become a daily occurrence since the road construction started earlier this year.]
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