By Desire Emmanuel
A trailer driver fled the scene and abandoned his vehicle after crushing a dispatch rider to death on a highway in Lagos State on Wednesday, March 25.
The tragedy occurred under the Cele Bridge corridor of the Apapa-Oshodi highway on Wednesday afternoon when the driver of the trailer fully-loaded with diesel rammed into the dispatch motorcycle, causing the rider to die instantly after being trapped underneath the vehicle.
On seeing the extent of the damage he caused, the driver of the vehicle was said to have jumped out out of the vehicle, fled and abandoned the tanker on the highway as passers-by and onlookers were bemoaning the tragedy.
Officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) as well as police officers from the Ijesha Divisional Headquarters were said to have arrived the scene after receiving distress calls regarding the accident. They eventually extricated the body of the dispatch rider from under the trailer.
The remains of the man were thereafter conveyed by the police to a morgue at Yaba while the tanker impounded by LASTMA officers and the damaged motorcycle were handed over to the police for further investigation with a view to apprehending the driver.
Following the accident and in order to avoid any collision on the highway, LASTMA personnel stationed along the axis cordoned off the crash site for about an hour which cased traffic bottleneck on the stretch of the ever-busy highway where the accident occurred.
Police officers were also on ground to ensure normalcy and a better traffic flow.
The menace of trailer drivers, especially those driving fuel tankers and the ones carrying containers has always been a source of concern to motorists and other road users in the state due to their recklessness whenever they are on the highways in the state.
Many motorists and commuters have lost their lives as a result of the carelessness and recklessness of the drivers.
