2 Toddlers, 6 Others Die In New Year Day Auto Crash In Ogun

At least eight persons, which included two female toddlers, have been confirmed dead, while 11 others sustained varying degrees of injuries in an accident which occured on Thursday afternoon along the ever-busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in Ogun State.

The New Year Day auto tragedy, which occured around 3: 30 p.m, involved an 18-seater Mazda commercial bus with registration number: APP 943 XP and a yellow coloured Volvo truck marked: AKM 547 YQ.

The Public Relations Officer of the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE), Babatunde Akinbiyi, who confirmed the accident, told LEADERSHIP that the yellow coloured Volvo truck was making a detour at a U-turn opening of the expressway located around the NASFAT prayer ground axis in the Obafemi-Owode local government area of Ogun State.

Akinbiyi explained that the Mazda passenger bus, which was on an excessive speed outbound Lagos State, rammed into the empty bottles-laden truck that was making a detour towards Ibadan in Oyo State at the U-turn point.

The TRACE Spokesman further stated that the accident, which happened just three days after the tragic crash that claimed lives of two close associates of the Nigerian-British boxing superstar, Anthony Joshua, resulted in heavy traffic build-up on the expressway, even while it was still raining.

He explained that it took the combined efforts of the TRACE personnel, the police, officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), as well as those of the Ogun State Accident and Emergency Services (OGASES) before the victims trapped in the accident could be rescued.

Akinbiyi stated further that the 11 injured victims were rescued to various nearby hospitals, while the OGASES ambulance took four of them to State Hospital in Abeokuta and the corpses deposited at a private morgue in Sagamu.