Over nine hundred passengers aboard an Iddo-bound
10-coach train escaped death on Friday morning when their train rammed into an
articulated vehicle at the Ilupeju Railway Crossing near Oshodi, Lagos.
The accident, which occurred at about 7:30 a.m., led to traffic gridlock along
the Ilupeju/Oshodi road for several hours.
Confirming the accident, Ademuyiwa Adekanbi, the Lagos
District Public Relations Officer of the Railways, said that no life was
lost in the incident.
Adekanbi said that the corporation has embarked on
enough enlightenment campaigns on the use of the railway crossings.
“We have done enough jingles on radio and television,
we have rallies and distributed fliers to sensitise people of the right of way
of a train at level crossings,” he said. Each of the coaches on the train
has 90 seats which are usually overloaded.
An eyewitness told journalists that
the articulated vehicle blocked the railway crossing when the train
was already close by.
The loaded trailer had crashed into the double barriers
on the railway crossing shortly before the train arrived.
On seeing the approaching train, the driver jumped
out of the trailer and ran away. The train then dragged the truck for some
distance, scattering the goods inside it, which were
mostly empty cartons of Malta Guinness drink, along the track.
The dragging of the truck also led to the damaging of
some vehicles parked along the rail track by motor mechanics.
It was gathered that the accident caused some damage to
the engine of the locomotive and the track.
The incident makes it the third time in August that
passenger trains have rammed into vehicles at railway crossings
in the Lagos metropolis.