The truck said to have been loaded with gravel reportedly lost one of its tyres and collided with the bus said to be travelling from Onitsha to Lagos.
The impact of the collision caused fuel to spill resulting in fire outbreak, which burnt the passengers beyond recognition.
However, two persons were said to have been rescued from the truck by a combined team of Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) officials, policemen and sympathisers who had a hectic time removing the charred bodies from the bus.
Confirming the accident, Edo State Sector Commander of FRSC, Kenneth Nwaegbe, said among the dead were 15 adults and two kids.
He said the commercial bus left Onitsha, Anambra State and was on its way to Lagos when the oncoming truck had a head-on collision with it on one side of the road under construction.
“It was not really head-on collision like that. What happened was that the truck was carrying gravel and was coming from Ore to Benin when it lost one of its tyres and lost control. And the Toyota bus was coming from Benin to Lagos when the two collided," he added.
He said the truck was among the vehicles on the one lane following construction work on the road when the accident occurred.
At press time, the badly burnt bodies of the passengers had been deposited at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) mortuary.
Following the accident, hundreds of passengers travelling to various destinations on the dual carriageway were stranded for hours because of the gridlock caused by the accident.
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