Two persons died while another person was injured yesterday when two buses had a head-on collision at the Ile-iwe bus-stop, Idimu, in Alimosho Local Government Area (LGA) of Lagos State in spite of the ongoing lockdown. A Siena bus loaded with passengers had defied the government shutdown order and was on high speed when it ran into another oncoming bus.
It was gathered that the Siena bus was about to run into a stationary truck picking refuse and in an attempt not to run into it, ram into the government bus used by Alimosho LGA for the enlightenment campaign on the health implications of COVID-19.
On seeing the fatal nature of the accident, the driver of the refuse truck, rather than assist in rescuing the trapped occupants of the vehicles, zoomed off, but some angry commercial drivers and motorcycle operators, who suspected that it was the driver who caused the accident, chased after him.
In no distance time, the truck driver was caught by the angry drivers and motorcycle operators who beat him and another man believed to be one of his workers to stupor. An unconfirmed report claimed that the driver gave up the ghost while the conductor was rushed to the hospital.
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However, two occupants of the buses involved in the accident were said to have also died few minutes after they were rushed to a nearby hospital. An official of the Nigeria Immigration Service, who was on duty and witnessed the accident was said to have saved the situation as many people would have died in the accident.
According to an eyewitness, Wasiu: “When the accident occurred and the driver of the refuse truck zoomed off, instead of people to start rescuing those trapped in the accident, they were busy chasing the driver while some were snapping photographs of the accident scene with their phones. It was an Immigration officer, who mobilised people and called some neighborhood watchers who assisted him to break the doors of the buses and rescued the trapped passengers.
“When the injured passengers were rushed to the hospital, two of them died while one is still in critical condition. Anyway, the driver of the vehicle carrying the refuse was later arrested and beaten to death. His conductor was rushed to the hospital. But the way he was pummeled, I don’t think he will survive the beating too”.
The Immigration officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity, as he was not supposed to speak to newsmen, said: “I am miffed with the kind of life people are living in this country. People were asked to stay at home, but they wouldn’t listen. If the Siena bus driver and passengers had stayed at home this avoidable accident wouldn’t have occurred. The occupants of the local government vehicle were on legitimate duty, carrying out enlightenment campaign, so also were the refuse vehicle driver and his workers. They were picking refuse. Where was the Siena bus driver and his passengers going?
“Again, in this type of situation, there was no police patrol vehicles on the road. If not for the intervention of God, the pandemonium would have escalated, because people are angry and looking for where to vent their anger. Even while I was mobilising people to assist in the rescue operations, they were interested in beating the driver of the refuse truck”.
This is coming two days after an unregistered Dangote Cement truck crushed six persons in a taxi to death at Epe Long-bridge, Epe area of the state. The taxi and the truck were operating despite a lockdown imposed on Lagos by the federal government to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) said the accident involved the Dangote truck and a commercial taxi conveying seven persons on Tuesday at about 7:00 p.m.
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