VEHICLE SOMERSAULTS ON THIRD MAINLAND BRIDGE

By Akpabio Aniema

An 18 seater bus somersaulted on the third mainland bridge leaving 12 people seriously injured on Tuesday about 1.50pm in Lagos. It was learnt that the cause of the accident was due to a burst tyre from the vehicle with its plate number, APP 366XD, which made the driver to apply the brake suddenly thereby setting the vehicle on a ghastly somersault. A fruit vendor, who gave her name as Bose, said, ‘‘The bus was heading towards Oworonshoki when it had a burst tyre. The driver lost control and he almost hit the railing of the bridge, he swerved and then somersaulted and landed on its side and later caught fire.’’ It was learnt that men of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, led by its Commander, Temitope Adebayo, along with other motorists rescued the passengers of whom some had sustained serious burns. ‘‘We had to break the windscreen of the bus and pull out the victims one after the other as part of the bus was already on fire,’’ a traffic official said.

Men of LASTMA were said to have carried the victims to the Gbagada General Hospital. It was observed that the incident caused traffic congestion from the Oworonshoki end of the bridge to the Lagoon front of the University of Lagos. Policemen as well as the LASTMA men attached to the Rapid Response Squad were on hand to divert traffic and control the crowd which had gathered to take pictures of the incident. No sooner had the bus been evacuated than a Sport Utility vehicle collided with another passenger bus. Although no one was injured in the second accident but it further worsened the traffic congestion.