Published 13th Dec, 2023

By Joseph Adeiye

A few days after a tragedy on the same road, at least 10 people lost their lives in an automobile collision on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway on Tuesday.

FIJ followed the news trail of road accidents on the busy road and found that at least 64 people have died while plying the same route in 2023 alone.

Ten people died in the Kara Axis of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway on December 12. Not long before Tuesday, one road user died after a Lagos-Ibadan expressway auto crash on November 29.

On November 14, the Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps said six people died in an accident at Car Park C, Redemption Camp, on the road. This accident involved a truck and a Mazda bus with the number plate EPE440YG.

A fatal crash took two lives on November 10 after a Mazda bus with registration number XV945EPE and an unregistered Howo Sino truck collided in the Kara area of the expressway.

On October 22, five commuters died at the Kara Bus Stop section of the road A truck with registration number KRD-12HGS, a CRV Sports Utility Vehicle and a commercial bus used for interstate travels were the three vehicles affected by the accident.

Four people lost their lives on October 9, when a luxury bus driver rammed his vehicle into a truck on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Florence Okpe, the Public Education Officer for the Ogun State Sector of the Federal Road Safety Corps, told newspapers that the accident happened in the Kara area of the expressway.

A Mercedes Benz ML350 with number plate AKD424HH and a Volkswagen bus with registered number plate KSF934YA were involved in an accident that killed one person on October 2. The accident injured at least seven people at Magboro Bus Stop along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. Eyewitnesses reported that the Mercedes Benz was trying to avoid a pedestrian when it collided with the Volkswagen bus as it was parked at the bus stop.

On September 17, at least five people died after a Toyota bus and a Mitsubishi pickup van smashed into a fallen truck along Foursquare Camp at Ajebo, along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. The DAF truck, with Registration Number KMC810ZB, had lost control with a burst tyre and obstructed the road when the Toyota bus and the Mitsubishi pickup van ran into it.

Two people died and three others were injured when a Mazda bus swerved off track opposite Conoil Filling Station after the interchange along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on August 4.

On July 16, a bus somersaulted in the Ayetoro area of the expressway and killed four travellers. Three commuters were killed in an accident involving a Toyota Sienna with registration number BDG426HT and a DAF truck with registration number RNG558XC on June 30.

On May 27, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Ogun confirmed four people had died in an accident involving a Lexus RX350 and a Mack truck close to Mountain Top University on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. The accident happened at 4.53 am.

Seven people died in perhaps the most gruesome way possible on April 13, as they were burned to death in a road crash along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. The accident occurred in the morning at Sapaade Bridge, and the victims were driving a Toyota Sienna with registration number BWR762PV and a Mazda bus with registration number BDN18LG.

Tuesday’s accident recorded 10 fatalities. Ahmed Umar, the Sector Commander of the FRSC in Ogun, said that the accident involved a Mack truck and a Toyota Hiace bus around the Oniworo area of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

These 14 separate accidents happen to be well-known incidents on the road captured in national dailies; they do not account for every accident that took a life on the same road.

Anthony Uga, the commander of FRSC’s sector in Ogun, told FIJ that some motorists could avoid such accidents if they embraced traffic rules on the expressway.

“The speed limit is 100km per hour on an motorway. There are ways to ensure that the motorists obey the extant rules and regulations, but some of them are not ready to embrace them,” Uga said on Wednesday.

“For instance, what happened on Tuesday, this vehicle came all the way from Kano, and what probably led to that accident was fatigue. This man (the driver) just wanted to reach Lagos before daybreak. The accident happened around 4:30 am. How can someone not stop and have his normal rest? The driver suffered from fatigue, lost control and ran into the back of a truck. It then dragged the vehicle about 200 metres away from the point of the crash, stringing the passengers along.

“We are mobilising our special marshals on the highway. On the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, we use the red flag approach to calm incoming traffic. Then we have motorised patrols to stem the tide of criminality and road crashes on that expressway.

“Mobile courts will also be intensified as we try to place our patrol vehicles every seven kilometres within the corridor. These are some of the things we are doing to train and retrain drivers so that they will fall within the ambits of safety while on the expressway.”

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