Policemen caused accident in Lagos

Tragedy struck on Thursday at Ikeja Along
Bus Stop on Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway,
Lagos State, after a heavily loaded 40-
foot container truck fell on a government
meat van, crushed a passerby, and wounded
several others.

Eyewitnesses said the truck had swerved
off the road to avoid colliding with some
policemen, who were chasing a motorcycle
rider, before the incident occurred
around 9am.
The victim, identified as Samuel
Ogunnaike, was an employee of a popular
phone dealer in Computer Village, Ikeja,
and was on his way to the office when he
met his death.
Any hope that he could survive the
accident was dashed after he was trapped
for about four hours before his body was
retrieved from the wreckage.
The van, Eko Meat Van, with number plate
XY 433 AA was levelled after one of the
containers fell on it. The driver and
three passengers in the vehicle, however,
escaped with injuries.
Eyewitnesses blamed the accident on the
police.
One of them, Michael Energy, said
overzealous policemen, who were chasing a
motorcyclist, caused the confusion that
led to the accident.
He said, "I was coming from Agege when I
saw a commercial motorcyclist, popularly
called okada, driving against traffic. He
was carrying a man and a lady as
passengers.
"Some police officers who were coming
from Ikeja Along tried to stop him, but
he ignored them.
"They gave him a chase and brushed the
okada with their vehicle, which sent the
rider and his passengers sprawling on the
road.
"Another police van came, and seeing the
scene, decided to wait. At this point,
the two police vehicles blocked the road.
"The Eko meat van was coming on the same
road, and since the police had blocked
the major road, he had no option, but to
stop.
"The trailer, carrying two containers,
was on top speed. I think his brake
failed because he was unable to control
the speed.
 "The driver of the trailer, while trying
to avoid colliding with the police
officers, swerved and ended up ramming
into the van and killing the man who was
passing by."
Energy claimed that immediately the
accident occurred, the police vehicles
disappeared from the accident scene.
A member of the Nigeria Security and
Civil Defence Corps, who would not want
to be named said, the corps treated two
of the casualties at the accident scene,
before they were taken to the state's
hospital.
He said two other people that were badly
injured had also been taken to an
undisclosed hospital before the NSCDC
officials arrived.
Mukaila Rauf, a 24-year-old meat seller,
who escaped unhurt in the meat van, said
he sat at the back of the van.
Rauf said, "I saw the police pursuing
three bikes. Suddenly, we heard the
trailer hooting. He tried avoiding us,
but its tail hit the van and one of the
containers fell on us. Our driver was
badly injured."
The atmosphere quickly turned to that of
hostility as the crowd jeered and booed
the policemen who later cordoned off the
area.
This began a long line of traffic, just
as passengers of vehicles began to
disembark and started trekking to their
destinations.
A police officer at the scene, however,
told Punch Metro that the police was not
to blame for the accident.
She claimed that the accident had
occurred because the bike rider and the
meat van had taken one way.
She said, "The motorcycle and the van
were taking one way when the police were
trying to stop them. The driver of the
truck then on top speed hit the van."
South-west coordinator of the National
Emergency Management Agency, Mr. Ibrahim
Farinloye, said, "We got conflicting
accounts from the policemen and the
public, so we don't know exactly the
number of the casualties and what exactly
transpired. We only took out one dead
body."
Timeline of rescue efforts
At 11.00am, the Lagos State Traffic
Management Authority brought a towing
truck which had to be pushed by policemen
to the accident scene after it broke
down. This drew jeers from the crowd.
When it was 12:00pm, it became clear the
truck was useless and had to be abandoned
as LASEMA and NEMA brought their
generator and gadgets to remove the
trapped body.
At 1.14pm, the rescue agents were tired.
The generator was off and when they tried
to restart it, it didn't respond for some
time.
At 1:16pm-, a bigger towing truck
belonging to Dex Project Limited, arrived
the scene, but at this time, the body had
been retrieved from the gravel-covered
ground.
At 1.18pm, Ogunnaike's corpse was removed
and put into a blue bag, then carried
into an ambulance belonging to the
State's Environmental Health Monitoring.
School children stuck
Some metres away from the accident, a
train was on motion. It was fully loaded
with school children from eight different
schools who were occupying different
compartments of the train.
The children were on excursion.
The train, however, got a call to stop
because part of the accident happened on
its tracks.
By the time our correspondent was leaving
the scene at 2pm, some of the
schoolchildren had started disembarking
because the road was blocked.