In what will come across as a really heartbreaking development, a family of eight traveling home for the New Year celebration has died.

The family members perished in an auto crash at the Amanwozuzu junction in the Ikeduru Local Government Area of Imo state.

The incident which happened around 3 pm on Friday has caused anxiety in the area.

The PUNCH correspondent who visited the scene of the accident gathered that the father of the family who was conveying his wife and children in a Sienna vehicle ran into a stationary truck carrying rods.

Eyewitnesses and police officers on the rescue mission said the rod pierced the bodies of the victims and all of them died on the spot, noting that the vehicle was broken to bring out the lifeless bodies of the family members.

As of the time of filing this report, policemen from the Ikeduru Local Government Area Division had deposited the bodies in a morgue.

The Divisional Police Officer in charge of the Ikeduru LGA, Lucky Ahiole, a Chief Superintendent of Police, said the stationary truck was parked at the roadside when the driver of the Sienna vehicle ran into it.

Ahiole said, “It is terrible. Eight died and we have taken them to a morgue. We had to break the Sienna vehicle to bring out the dead bodies. The rod pierced their eyes and bodies and even the children died.”

However, an eyewitness said that the stationary truck carrying rods was blocking the road, noting that the tragedy could have been averted if the truck was not parked on the road.