This incident happened January 2015,on my way from Lagos back to Port Harcourt.
I woke up early that fateful Friday morning, I started preparing to go to the park to board a vehicle to Port Harcourt. I had already packed my bags the previous night. After I had finished dressing up, my mother accompanied me to the park and I got my ticket. At 7am all 15 passengers including me boarded the bus and we left the park at about 7.15am.
We began our journey with a prayer from one of the passengers after which everyone kept quiet and was doing one thing or the other. After a few hours, I brought out my laptop and started watching a movie to keep myself busy.
At about 12pm, we got to our first stop which is at Ore in Ondo state. All the passengers came down from the bus to stretch their legs and get some food to eat. I went to the restroom to ease myself after which I went to get some food to eat.
At 12.30pm,we all entered the bus again and continued our journey. The journey was peaceful until we got to Edo state where we had a ghastly accident. As we were almost getting to Benin, a very big truck was trying to make a turn across the road and our driver did not notice it in time. Before I knew what was happening,I heard a very loud crashing noise and I noticed that our vehicle started somersaulting. I was struggling to keep my eyes open because I was feeling very dizzy. After the somersaulting has stopped, I opened my eyes and discovered that I was actually upsidedown. I looked around me and I saw so much blood and I immediately started feeling nauseous. I tried to come out of the vehicle since I sat very close to the window,I carefully removed my seat belt and crawled out of the vehicle.
When I came out,I looked back at the vehicle and behold, the sight I saw was very frightening. I went to the other side of the vehicle and saw that our driver was across the road,his legs were completely shattered and his head was already smashed and I could see the content of his head poured out on the floor. Immediately I vomited on the floor and I started crying.
People, started running towards our vehicle and they were shouting,they started trying to get some of the other passengers out of the bus. Some people came to me and asked if I was okay,it was then I looked at myself and discovered I was bleeding. I touched my head and there was blood but I was too stunned to reply them.
I looked around again and I saw that they had been able to bring out some persons from the vehicle. Three of then were already dead while the others had very severe injuries and were bleeding profusely. After they succeeded in bringing out all the people from the vehicle, I discovered that 6 passengers had already died on the spot.
Few minutes later, many ambulances came around and started taking people to nearby hospitals. I was carried in one of the vehicles since I had some injuries and needed to be assessed in the hospital for other injuries. It was at this point that I started feeling pains and lightheaded and then I passed out.
After sometime, I opened my eyes and discovered that I was in the hospital and an IV line was connected to my forearm. My head was severely aching, and I was still feeling very dizzy. A nurse came to me and asked how I was feeling and I told her my head was seriously aching me. She said she was going to give me some medications to relieve the pain.
That evening, my mother came around and she started crying and thanking God for keeping me alive. I asked the nurses about the other passengers who boarded the bus,she said 7 of them were admitted in the hospital while the remaining 6 who died had been taken to the mortuary and that their family members had been contacted to come and get their remains.
I was in the hospital for a week after which I was discharged and sent home. When I got home everyone was so happy to see me and they were grateful that u survived such a ghastly incident. I went into my room and I decided to arrange my things after which I went to sleep since it was already dark.
I saw myself at the scene of the accident with the dead bodies,the blood and the shattered body parts that were sprawled across the road. I started trembling with fear,I looked at myself and saw blood trickling down my body and I started screaming. My mother rushed into my room and started waking me up, I opened my eyes and I was sweating profusely. My mum asked what happened and I told her about the nightmare I had and she said the nightmares will stop with time.
The nightmares continued for some days after which I decided maybe if I went back to school they would stop. I called my mum and told her about my decision and she agreed,but I told her I won't be travelling by bus since it will remind me of the incident. She told me that I would be travelling by flight.
A week later, I took a flight back to school to continue with my studies. My friends were so happy to see me,they asked about the incident but I told them that I didn't want to talk about it because I was really traumatised by the accident.
When I remember this incident, I shed tears for the other passengers who lost their lives that day and I also give thanks to God because he gave me the grace to still be alive till today.
