A tragic accident has claimed the life of a police officer on a motorcycle after a truck collided with multiple vehicles along the Kara Bridge on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on Thursday. The crash, which involved a truck and several other vehicles, led to a series of collisions that trapped the officer under one of the vehicles, resulting in his untimely death.
Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, the Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), confirmed the incident in a statement, detailing that the officer was an unfortunate casualty of a multi-vehicle accident involving at least three vehicles. According to Oke-Osanyintolu, the accident unfolded when a Volvo truck, registration number FKJ 484 YA, lost control after crashing into a moving Toyota Hiace bus (registration number BWR 371 XC), veered off the road, and then struck a parked Mercedes bus nearby.
The officer, identified as part of the Mopol 20 Division of the Nigeria Police Force, was reportedly en route back to his station on his motorcycle when the tragic incident occurred. He became trapped under the wreckage and was unable to survive the impact.
Oke-Osanyintolu elaborated, “Upon arrival at the scene, the LASEMA Response Team discovered that a Volvo truck, a Toyota Hiace bus, and a Mercedes bus were all involved in the tragic accident. The Volvo truck, fully loaded and heading towards Arepo, collided with the Mercedes Benz bus while in motion, causing it to swerve off the road and fall uncontrollably onto a Toyota Hiace bus that was parked on the roadside.”
Further explaining the fatal consequences of the crash, he added, “A police officer, attempting to navigate his way back to the office on his motorcycle, unfortunately got caught in the incident and died on the spot.”
The aftermath saw the LASEMA response team working to recover both the officer’s body and the involved vehicles. Oke-Osanyintolu confirmed that the agency utilized its heavy-duty equipment, the Super Metro, to extract the victim’s body, which was then bagged and handed over to police operatives from the Ojodu Division for further investigation and processing.
The involved vehicles were similarly managed by the LASEMA response team, with the ill-fated truck and the Toyota Hiace bus both being towed to the Ojodu Police Station as part of the recovery and investigative processes.
The accident led to significant disruptions on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, with extensive gridlock that left many motorists stranded for hours. The Commandant of the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency, Seni Ogunyemi, issued a traffic update on the incident. He confirmed that the multi-vehicle crash on Kara Bridge had severely affected traffic flow along the busy route. TRACE officials, alongside police operatives, worked diligently on-site to clear the affected vehicles and manage the traffic congestion as much as possible, aiming to restore normalcy.