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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

CONTAINER CRUSHES CAR IN LAGOS


Container crushes man to death in Lagos
A man was killed in Lagos when a truck loaded with a 14-foot container fell on his SUV and crushed him to death. The accident occurred at the junction of the New Garage bus stop along Ikorodu Road around mid-day.
According to witnesses, the unidentified man dropped off a passenger around the garage and was driving out when a commercial motorcycle rider Okada who was trying to escape from the regular toll tickets, crossed to the other side of the road, forcing the trailer to veer off to avoid hitting him.
The swerve allegedly tilted the container it was carrying and the truck fell, crushing the victims vehicle.
The SUV, an Acura jeep, was destroyed and one end of the container pierced the neck of the victim. Blood could be seen gushing out of the lifeless body on the driver's chair.
Officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency were at the scene of the accident about 30 minutes after it occurred but had difficulty in evacuating the wreck.
A crane belonging to Ajibade Sons and Co. was deployed by LASEMA but failed to pull up the container which occupied half of the highway, causing traffic jam.
It took the additional effort of two towing vehicles to raise the container as a number of men from the crowd pulled out the wreck of the SUV.
An emotional scene ensued when the son of the victim arrived, bemoaning the sudden death of his father.
Identified by his friends as Tayo, the young man rolled on the floor, and cried.
"If I had not gone to work earlier today, I would have driven daddy and this will not have happened," he wailed, and a few people standing by began to cry as well.
The bereaved man refused to answer any question about his father's identity and when a call came on his mobile phone he yelled at the caller, who seems to be his father's chauffeur, saying "Baba, why didn't you drive him, why, why?"
According to police officers, both the rider of the motorcycle and the driver of the trailer fled the scene of the accident.
The officers at the scene who seemed to have their hands full controlling the crowd, also refused to answer any question from our reporter as they struggled to manage the chaotic traffic from Maryland to Ojota where all vehicle movement seemed to have stopped.
An official of the Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LASTMA); Ibikunle Tijani confirmed that the accident was caused by the Okada rider, who reportedly disobeyed the state's traffic code by crossing the highway.
Amidst great wailing, Tayo and his friends lifted the corpse, whose face was by then covered with a mat, onto a pick-up van which conveyed them to the nearest hospital.

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