A police inspector and four others were killed in a multiple collision that occurred at the Kara Bridge area of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, an incident that emergency responders at the scene blamed on speeding and brake failure.
This is coming barely 24 hours after a driver was hospitalised following a collision between two trucks at the Otedola Bridge section of the same expressway.
Our correspondent, who was at the scene, gathered that as of 11 p.m. on Wednesday, emergency responders had barricaded the section of the expressway while efforts were going on to extinguish the fire and prevent it from spreading to other vehicles.
The barricade, however, caused a major gridlock, leaving several vehicles trapped on the stretch of the road from Kara Bridge to Otedola Bridge as motorists remained at a standstill for hours.
An eyewitness who spoke from the opposite lane said the accident occurred a few minutes past 9 p.m.
He added that the impact of the collision triggered the inferno that engulfed one of the trucks.
The crash happened around a few minutes past 9 p.m., and immediately after it occurred, another truck coming from behind rammed into one of the trucks forcefully.
“The impact was heavy, and that was why the detached head burst into flames. Nobody could go near at that moment because the fire was very fierce.”
Our correspondent observed that some impatient motorists started driving against traffic to escape the gridlock caused by the incident.
Several vehicles also diverted through the Berger underpass, connecting to the other side of the expressway and driving one-way towards the OPIC U-turn.
A pedestrian who claimed to have witnessed the aftermath of the crash said early rescue efforts by passersby were hampered by poor visibility.
“My friend was among those who tried to help before the arrival of the state firefighters, but the flames were too much. It was already dark, and we couldn’t tell the number of people involved. At that time, we felt one or two people may have fallen off the bridge in the process.”
Speaking in a telephone conversation with our correspondent, the spokesperson for the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency, Babatunde Akinbiyi, disclosed that the accident occurred when a truck rammed into another faulty, stationary truck.
According to Akinbiyi, a vehicle was attempting to tow the faulty truck away when an oncoming truck rammed into it, causing it to burst into flames.
He noted that the three trucks involved could not be identified as they were unregistered.
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