Road accidents: LASEMA warns against dangerous driving

The General Manager Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) Mr. Adesina Tiamiyu has advised motorists to always drive safely by observing speed limits, obeying traffic signs and ensuring vigilance on the roads to avoid any unfortunate incident that may lead to unnecessary injuries and loss of lives on Lagos roads.

Tiamiyu gave the warning recently at Alausa, Ikeja following an accident that occurred during the early hours of Tuesday when an articulated gas truck rammed into another stationary articulated vehicle due to non-adherence to safety and road traffic rules by the motorists.

He explained that the Agency received a distress alert at about 7.09 a.m on Monday, 5th March via the emergency toll-free line 112/767 revealing the occurrence of an accident on the Oshodi/Apapa Express Way after Cele Bus Stop inward Mile 2

"The call prompted the immediate activation of the Agency's Response Team and other responders to the scene of the incident," he said.

"Preliminary investigation carried out on arrival at the scene of the incident revealed that the driver of the articulated Gas truck was overspeeding, lost control and rammed into a containerised truck parked by the side of the road. Officials of the LASEMA Response Team (LRT) were immediately mobilised to the scene to respond to the incident", he added.

The LASEMA boss revealed that though no life was lost in the accident, persons who were either trapped in the vehicle or sustained different degrees of injuries were rescued alive with the aid of the Agency's extrication equipment and given appropriate medical attention.

“The articulated trucks involved in the incident were immediately recovered with the help of the Agency's Supper Metro towing truck, to restore normalcy and free vehicular movement around the axis”, he stated.

While noting that the Agency's Response Team, Lagos State Ambulance Service (LASAMBUS), Lagos State Fire Service, Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and Nigeria Police from Okota Division all responded to the incident, he affirmed that the Police and other security operatives will carry out further investigations to ascertain the immediate and remote causes of the unfortunate incident.