It was a bloody Thursday morning in Lagos, as multiple auto accidents claimed lives of six people and left scores wounded. In one of the accidents, eye witnesses had it that a commercial motorcyclist was riding against the traffic at Ikeja, by PWD Bus Stop, along Lagos/Abeokuta expressway, when the accident happened. The source said: “The Okada was driving against the traffic, going inward PWD, when he sighted policemen and LASTMA, who allegedly gave the rider a chase. “He (the okada rider) tried to cross over to the other side (that is his right lane) when he was swept away by an on-coming trailer.” The source said the trailer driver, in an attempt to control the heavy-duty vehicle, rammed into three on-coming vehicles heading towards Ijana-Ipaja end of the road, and crushed the private cars with their occupants, before landing on a commercial 14-seater passenger bus. It was gathered that, one of the vehicles, also crushed by the trailer, had the “Eko Meat Van” boldly written on the both sides of the body. The driver of Eko meat van and his aide were said to be victims of the crash. Identified as one of the victims, who died on the spot, was a 27-year-old Industrial Trainee (IT) student of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic in Ogun State, attached to Slot, a Telecommunications and Information Technology Company, located at Computer Village, Ikeja. The accident brought vehicular traffic on both sides of the busy expressway to a standstill for several hours. Police authorities confirmed the accident, but said it could only account for two casualties and several injured persons. Ngozi Braide, the command’s spokesperson, told our correspondent that, only two persons were confirmed dead at the time the reporter spoke with her. But, another police source from the State Traffic Department (STD), and Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, told our correspondent that three other victims died on their way to the hospital. Also speaking, Deputy Commissioner of Police Operations, Lagos, Tunde Shobulo, could not say if policemen were chasing the commercial motorcyclist when the accident occurred. But he said the meat van was driving against traffic and crashed into the oncoming truck whose driver lost control, given the heavy load it was carrying. Eyewitnesses blamed the accident on the police. As at the time of filing this report, officials of the Lagos State Traffic Authority (LASTMA) and police were at the scene trying to use a crane to remove the container and meat van off the road to ease vehicular movement. In a related development, police source at Adekunle Divisional Headquarters, Yaba, said another Toyota 14-seater bus, property of a private nursery and primary school (name withheld) in the Obalende area of Lagos, somersaulted on the Third Mainland Bridge on Thursday morning. The source said no casualty was reported, “but some of the children sustained injuries and were rushed to a private hospital, located at Herbert Macaulay Way, Ebute Metta, Lagos.”
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 08:37:44 +0000