Nigeria
BRT bus collides with train in Lagos, several are presumed dead
At the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) in Ikeja, the injured victims of the collision have been visited by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
The state bus carrying civil servants to work was struck by a speeding train on Thursday, making it a sad day for government employees in Lagos State.
On Thursday morning, the sad collision happened at the PWD bus stop in the state’s Ikeja region. The Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) in Ikeja has already received over 82 injured patients and confirmed the deaths of six people.
Four people died at the hospital and two perished at the scene of the accident, according to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who visited the hospital.
He claimed there were 85 people in total, 42 of whom had moderate injuries, 29 had critical injuries, and eight had minor ones.
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 transport of the Lagos State Government.
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More than 82 additional people were injured and evacuated to LASUTH, according to Nosa Okunbor, a spokesman for the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA).
The train coming into Lagos from Abeokuta locked the State Government staff vehicle on its rail as it attempted to cross the PWD/Sogunle rail crossing, he continued.
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 neighbourhood 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 photos from the scene:
