By Emeka Ugwuanyi
Tragedy struck in early hours of Thursday at PWD/Shogunle axis, Ikeja area of Lagos State when a passenger train rammed into a staff bus with many injured and death toll currently standing at six.
Eyewitnesses said the the train was coming from Agege area and met the bus with the Lagos state government workers on board crossing the rail to link Ikeja GRA.
One of the eyewitnesses told Vanguard that the tragic incident which happened as early as around 8:00 am claimed a number of lives.
The victims of the accident, according to the Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Dr Oluwafemi Oke-Osanyintolu, were workers of the Lagos State Government have been carried to Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) in Ikeja.
“The incident happened around 7:38 this morning. As you can see the train collided with a bus. But, we have activated our emergency effort plan, and all key stakeholders that are important in emergency are on the ground,” said Oke-Osanyintolu
Speaking about casualties, he said, “We were able to rescue people and recover two bodies. And the operation is still ongoing.”
“I can’t really talk about the number of the casualty but there are casualties that have been taking to the LASUTH,” Oke-Osanyintolu added.
The accident caused a gridlock on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway from for motorists coming from Oshodi around Shogunle to Ikeja-Along.
Operatives of the LASEMA, the Lagos State Transport Management Agency (LASTMA), the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, the Lagos State Police Command and the Nigerian Army were present at the scene of the accident.
According to Channels Television, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has visited injured victims of the accident at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) in Ikeja.
The sights from the scene are gory as passersby watch in horror even as dead and injured victims were extricated from the bus which was hit right on the rail tracks.
The Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) spokesman, Adebayo Taofiq said though the bus involved in the crash is the same as the regular BRT buses in the state, the bus was a staff bus of the Lagos State Government.
Also, a spokesman for the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Nosa Okunbor, said, “Two adult females and one male staff of the State Government lost their lives in the crash and 82 others injured and evacuated to LASUTH.
“The State Government staff bus was trying to cross the PWD/Sogunle rail crossing while the train coming into Lagos from Abeokuta trapped the bus on its rail,” he added.
First responders later arrived the scene for rescue operations.
Fatal cases of vehicle-train collision have resulted in casualties over the years. The last one was recorded in December 2022 when a passenger train from Kaduna to Abuja crushed a middle-aged woman to death on the rail track around the Kubwa area of the nation’s Federal Capital Territory. Stakeholders and safety experts have repeatedly called for preventive measures to stop the recurrence but not much can be said to have been done by the concerned authorities.
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