Fatal Gombe–Yola highway crash kills eight, including senior police officer, after tyre blowout.
Hummer bus plunges under bridge near Kaluwa, leaving others injured and police community mourning.
A tragic accident along the Gombe–Yola Federal Highway has claimed the lives of eight individuals, including a senior police officer, after a Hummer bus lost control and plunged under a bridge near Kaluwa village in Kaltungo Local Government Area of Gombe State.
The fatal crash occurred on Thursday around 3:00 p.m. and involved a commercial Hummer bus driven by 67-year-old Usman Ibrahim, a resident of Damilu in Yola North Local Government Area of Adamawa State. The vehicle, which was transporting 18 passengers from Yola to Gombe, suffered a burst rear tire, leading the driver to lose control. The bus veered off the highway and tumbled into a gully beneath a bridge.
Emergency response teams promptly arrived at the scene and transported all victims to the General Hospital in Kaltungo for medical attention. A medical doctor at the hospital confirmed that eight people had died in the crash. Among the deceased was Superintendent of Police Jacob Gabriel, who served as a provost officer with the 65 Police Mobile Force (PMF) unit in Mubi, Adamawa State.
Two other police officers who were on board sustained serious injuries. Inspector Abel Augustine, attached to the Border Patrol in Mubi, suffered multiple fractures, while Corporal Abduljamil Suleiman of the Ganye Division was also critically injured. Both men were stabilized at the Kaltungo hospital before being referred to the Federal Teaching Hospital in Yola for more intensive treatment.
Eight additional passengers who sustained various degrees of injury were treated and discharged from the hospital. Meanwhile, the remains of the deceased victims have been deposited in the hospital morgue, as authorities continue investigations into the cause of the crash.
