A heavy duty container yesterday skid-ded off the Ojuelegba bridge, in Lagos, landing on a Nissan saloon car and a Sports Utility Vehicle, SUV, killing three people in the process.
An occupant in the Nissan car was dragged out dead when the container was finally lifted off the vehicles by 9pm.
The incident, which occurred at about 4.45pm, reportedly caused a stampede as motorists plying the ever busy route abandoned their vehicles and fled.
This also resulted in a multiple accidents, with fleeing motorists and commuters sustaining varying degrees of injuries in the process.
There were different accounts as to how the incident occurred. A version said the truck driver was trying to overtake another truck when the container skidded off. Another version said that the driver of the truck, who fled immediately the incident occurred, could have been drunk.
A mammoth crowd besieged the scene as sympathizers attempted to rescue the trapped driver of the SUV from the debris of his car. As at 7.20pm, efforts were still on by combined rescue teams to remove the container from the car.
While some eye witnesses claimed that the container could have fallen off because it was not latch, the Federal Road Safety Corps deduced otherwise. The Lagos State Sector Commander, Mr Hyginus Omeje, when contacted stated that information at his disposal showed that the container was latch because it fell alongside the flat belt on which a container is hooked.
According to him: If a container falls without the flat belt, then it means it was not latch and necessary action would be taken against its owner. But in this case, the container fell with the flat belt, indicating that it was latch.” The flat belt was severed from the head of the truck.
“There is an ongoing operation code named Operation Scorpion initiated from the Corps , where we are on the the look out for unlatch container and its still ongoing he said”.
As at the time he spoke with Vanguard, Omesje said he was on his way to have an on-the-spot assessment of the damage.
Also, the South West Spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, confirmed that only one person lost his life as against earlier speculation that several lives were lost.
He said: “Only one person is at risk and that is the driver of the SUV jeep on which the container landed “.
On his part, the Lagos State Fire Service Director, Rasaq Fadipe said two fire trucks were deplored to the scene of the accident at Ojuelegba, immediately information reached him.