BRT crushes man to death

A man met his untimely death yesterday afternoon after he was run over by a commercial bus on the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lane at Irawo Bus Stop, Ikorodu Road, Lagos State.

The unidentified man was knocked down by a BRT bus as he tried to cross the expressway at about 12:10p.m. The accident occurred less than 50 metres away from the Irawo pedestrian bridge.

The vehicle with passengers onboard sped off as a crowd gathered at the scene of the incident. His body was put in the back of a truck by onlookers and taken away after lying on the road for more than 30 minutes.

An eyewitness said the deceased mistook the double-lane road, which is used exclusively by the BRT buses, for a one-way road. Another resident of the area, who gave his name as Wale, said he was a few metres away from the scene when the man attempted to cross the road.

Wale said: “The guy was trying to cross the road, unfortunately the BRT was speeding. Immediately it hit the guy, the guy fell and rolled under the BRT and was crushed. We picked up his phone and tried to call his parents or family but just one person responded. We couldn’t gain access to his phone because it had a password. So, we removed the SIM card and put it in another phone. The guy didn’t look properly before crossing and actually, there is a bridge just nearby. This place is not meant for crossing.”

Officers of the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC) and the police, who arrived soon after the accident, assisted in crowd control at the scene.
They declined to speak to journalists, but an LNSC official said he learnt the man died after falling off a commercial motorcycle, but this was disputed by those at the scene.

The accident caused a build- up of traffic on both sides of Ikorodu Road. An attempt by a stick-wielding mob to vandalise Primero buses trapped on the highway was thwarted by policemen from Owode-Onirin Division, Ajegunle.

The Owode-Onirin Divisional Police Officer (DPO), E. Bernard, approached the mob and persuaded them to allow the vehicles to pass.