It was a sad day for Lagos State as state bus carrying civil servants to work was struck by a speeding train on Thursday.
The sad collision happened at the PWD bus stop in Ikeja area of the stste on Thursday morning. Emergency personnel have already reported two deaths, while 84 injured people have been sent to local hospitals.
The scene is graphic as bystanders watch in horror as the dead and injured people are pulled from the bus that was struck directly on the rail tracks.
Although the bus involved in the collision is the same as the state’s standard BRT buses, the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) spokesman, Adebayo Taofiq, said the bus was a staff support of the Lagos State Government.
Also, a spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency in Lagos, Ibrahim Farinloye, said, “Two adult females staff of the State Government dead and several injured evacuated.”
“The State Government staff bus was trying to cross the PWD/Sogunle rail crossing while the train coming into Lagos from Abeokuta trapped the bus on its rail,” he added.
Later, emergency personnel arrived at the area to conduct rescue efforts.
Over the years, fatal vehicle-train collisions have caused casualties. The most recent occurred in December 2022 when a Kaduna to Abuja passenger train crushed and killed a middle-aged woman on a rail track near the Kubwa neighborhood of the country’s Federal Capital Territory. Stakeholders and safety experts have repeatedly urged the concerned authorities to take preventive measures to avoid a repeat of the incident, yet little can be stated to have been done.
See pictures from the scene of the accident:
