One of the crashed vehicles . Photo: LASTMA
No fewer than four persons were killed while five others sustained varying degrees of injuries in separate road crashes recorded in Ogun and Lagos states on Wednesday.
The crashes, according to the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency and the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, were caused by route violation and excessive speeding.
In Ogun State, three persons died and three others were injured in a head-on collision involving a Mercedes-Benz truck and a crane along the Sagamu-Benin Expressway, a few metres before the Babcock University Junction in Ikenne.
The spokesperson for TRACE, Babatunde Akinbiyi, in a statement on Wednesday, said the crash occurred at about 5 am and involved a white Mercedes-Benz truck with registration number LG 59 BLF and a yellow crane without a registration number.
He noted that eyewitnesses said the crane driver drove against traffic while speeding, leading to the fatal collision.
“According to eyewitness accounts, the crane truck drove against traffic, coupled with excessive speed, which led to a head-on collision with the Benz truck,” Akinbiyi said.
He disclosed that six persons were involved in the crash, comprising three males and three females.
He added that three male victims sustained injuries and were rescued to the Babcock University Teaching Hospital, while three others—two males and one female—lost their lives.
“The injured victims have been rescued to Babcock Hospital, while the presumed dead have been taken to the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital morgue in Sagamu by the police,” he stated.
Akinbiyi said traffic was diverted from Delabo Junction to the second lane to ease congestion while efforts continued to evacuate the damaged vehicles from the road.
He said TRACE, the Federal Road Safety Corps and the police commiserated with the families of the deceased and urged motorists to desist from route violations because of their grave consequences.
In a separate incident in Lagos, one person died while two others were injured in a multiple-vehicle collision along New Road by Coastal Road, inward Jakande.
The LASTMA spokesperson, Adebayo Taofiq, in a statement made available to our correspondent on Wednesday, said preliminary investigations showed that the crash involved a Mack flat-bed articulated trailer, a Toyota mini truck and two motorcycles.
He attributed the crash to excessive speeding by the trailer driver, who reportedly lost control and rammed into the moving Toyota mini truck, forcing it to somersault before crashing into one of the motorcycles.
Taofiq noted that the injured victims were rescued by LASTMA officials and other emergency responders before being taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Reacting to the incident, the General Manager of LASTMA, Olalekan Bakare-Oki, described the crash as a needless tragedy and renewed the agency’s appeal to motorists to obey speed limits.
“Drivers of articulated vehicles and all categories of road users must exhibit greater discipline, exercise heightened vigilance behind the wheel and operate strictly within the legally prescribed speed limits,” Bakare-Oki said.
He added that reckless driving remained one of the leading causes of avoidable road traffic deaths and urged motorists to cultivate safe driving habits and comply with traffic regulations.
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