By Desire Emmanuel
A trailer driver who fled after crushing a motorcycle rider to death in the early hours of Monday, February 9, has been apprehended by operatives of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA).
The tragedy occurred at Underbridge around the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) inward Airport Road in Ikeja, the state capital, involving a DAF trailer and a motorcycle.
According to reports, both the motorcycle rider and the trailer driver were coming from the Maryland axis and attempted to negotiate the roundabout under the bridge when the incident occurred.
As a result of this, the motorcycle rider was unable to move away from the trailer, and the vehicle crushed him, leading to his instant death.
On realising what he had done, the trailer driver was said to have abandoned the vehicle and fled. He was however given a hot chase by LASTMA officers with the help of people passing by, leading to his apprehension before he was handed over to police officers from the Ikeja Divisional Headquarters.
Officials of the State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit (SHEMU) were also called to the scene and they evacuated the remains of the rider from the carriageway and deposited them at the LASUTH morgue.
The accident caused massive gridlock on the busy road and officials of LASTMA and policemen made frantic efforts to control the attendant traffic situation.
