A pregnant woman and her two children, as well as a driver of a commercial tricycle popularly called ‘Keke’, on Tuesday, died in an auto crash that occurred in Okota area of Lagos State.
Our correspondent gathered that the accident happened when a policeman deployed to Okota Police Station allegedly threw caution to the wind and dragged the steering wheel with the driver of Toyota Sienna space bus on Bayo Oyewole Street, Ago Palace way.
In the ensuing melee, the driver of the space bus lost control and rammed the car into the commercial tricycle, killing the four occupants.
The accident caused confusion in the area as residents, especially the youth, set up burnfire and made moves to set the police station ablaze to express their grievance over the development.
Witnesses said the accident occurred after two policemen allegedly flagged down the driver along the road for allegedly violating a traffic law, an order that the driver was said to have complied with.
But the unfortunate incident occurred when he attempted to allegedly evade arrest.
The driver of the Sienna bus, who reportedly zoomed off with one of the police officers, who sat on the passenger seat inside the vehicle, met his match as he was said to have pounced on him and hijacked the steering to stop the vehicle.
It was further gathered that as they were struggling with the steering wheel with each other, the driver lost control of the vehicle and it rammed into the tricycle which was carrying the pregnant woman and the three others on board.
An eyewitness, who simply gave his name as Mr. Gabriel, said the policeman that jumped into the vehicle to engage and struggle with the driver also sustained injuries during the crash.
According to him, the other policemen hurriedly left the scene of the accident immediately to avert mob action from residents.
“That is what we see every time here in Lagos. The police officers, LASTMA officers, have become lawless. In this case, a Police officer started dragging steering with a driver while the vehicle was in motion. They both lost control of the car and hit a tricycle that was on its own lane. They killed a woman with her two kids and the rider of the tricycle on the spot,’’ he said.
As of the time of filing this report, the Lagos Police Command spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin, was yet to react to the incident.
