An articulated truck has just offloaded its unlatched container on a car at Cele bus stop, on the Oshodi-Apapa expressway in mainland Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital.
It is unclear at the time of reporting if the occupants of the car made it alive.
The accident has also led to a traffic congestion on the route and in surrounding routes.
One container accident too many
Articulated trucks roaming Lagos with unlatched containers have caused many accidents in the city and have ended many lives.
In 2015, an articulated truck toppled over and emptied its container on cars below, near Oshodi.
In August, a 40ft container claimed two lives in Ijesha.
In June of 2018, a truck laden with wooden materials fell off the Ojuelegba bridge, crushing cars and its occupants below.
In April of 2019, another container tumbled into a car in Ojuelegba, killing occupants of the vehicle in an instant.
Two women were killed in a multiple truck accident in the Gbagada area of Lagos on Tuesday, September 1, 2020, when two tipper trucks, one loaded tanker, and a 40ft containerized truck crushed a commercial bus in the area.
On July 26, 2020, a container-laden truck crushed 27-year-old Chidinma Ajoku, her colleague Nnaekpe Chima and one Daniel Okwuoge to death in the Ilasamaja area of Lagos.
“Losing a loved one is extremely painful, but what is more painful is losing them prematurely. That was the sad fate that befell the Ajoku and Nnaekpe families when they lost Chidinma Ajoku aged 27 and Chima Nnaekpe, 29 to a fallen container on their way home from work at Ilasamaja,” said Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on August 6, 2020.
“Their deaths are totally avoidable, and we take responsibility for this sad incident. The onus is now on us to enforce stricter and more stringent laws in order to put a total stop to these types of unfortunate incidents,” Sanwo-Olu added.
Articulated trucks are often parked smack in the middle of unlit expressways--a danger for most motorists heading home from work.
The Lagos and federal governments haven’t found a solution to the articulated-truck menace and carnage in the nation’s most populous city.