Community members in Fadeyi, Yaba area of Lagos, have called on the government of Babatunde Sanwo-Olu to give them a pedestrian bridge.

Speaking after a hit-and-run car killed an official of the Lagos Metropolitan Transport Authority (LAMATA) on Friday, the community members said there have been many of such incidents and that the only way out is a pedestrian bridge. They said one used to be there but it was removed during the last administration.

“Many school children have died on this road. But there is something government can do. Let them give us a pedestrian bridge,” Adeowo Oladele, a resident, told FIJ.

“With a pedestrian bridge, deaths will reduce. If anyone then refuses to use the bridge, whatever happens to him becomes their own doing.”

Olorunsola Omolara, a young woman who has been a street sweeper in Fadeyi for four years, said she has lost count of deaths by hit-and-run vehicles.

She said: “This was just one in a series of such incidents here. I’ve lost count of deaths by hit and run vehicles on this road. Just Last week, two students were hit by a car and were rushed to the hospital. In February, two soldiers were also hit. One of them died.”

Oladele said that there used to be a pedestrian bridge on the road, but it was removed by the government of Akinwunmi Ambode.

FIJ reported on Friday that a LAMATA official died after being hit by a car at Fadeyi bus stop. The man, according to eyewitnesses, stood on the pedestrian walk way between the two sections of the road before a sport car cleared him off. By the time an ambulance arrived hours after the incident, the victim had given up the ghost.

Speaking further, Omolara said a pedestrian bridge would go a long way in curbing deaths on the road, as pedestrians would no longer share the highway with vehicles.

“We need a pedestrian bridge to solve this problem,” she said.” With that, people will have no choice than to climb and there would be less sad tales. We beg the government to help.”