LAGBUS Crushes Soldier To Death ...Lagos Acquires 90 New BRT Buses

This horrible accident happened yesterday Monday Sept. 23rd along the Alaka/Costain crossover bridge in Surulere. The driver of one of the buses in the state mass transit scheme lost control of his bus and crashed into a soldier riding a motorcyle on the express. The yet-to-be identified soldier was cut almost into two by the bus.

According to a source who witnessed the accident, the driver was on top speed when he lost control of the vehicle as he approached a bad spot on the dilapidated bridge. The driver, while trying to avoid the bad spot, swerved to the left pinning the soldier on the railing of the bridge. The bus dragged the soldier for a bit and cut through his bowel.

Eyewitnesses said the soldier, who died on the spot, was carrying a woman on the back seat of the motorcycle, and was flung away from the impact of the collision. She survived the crash but is in a critical condition in the hospital. The driver of the bus fled the scene after seeing the extent of the damage and so did the passengers of the bus a few minutes later, fearing attack from soldiers.

Lagos Acquires 90 New BRT Buses
The Lagos State government said that it has acquired about 90 new Bus Rapid Transit, BRT, buses to ease the transport hiccups faced by residents of Lagos. The state’s Commissioner for Public Transportation, Kayode Opeifa, said on Monday that the buses would soon be inaugurated.
Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, Opeifa also disclosed that the bad shape of some BRT buses in the state is as a result of the scarcity of spare parts to enable the state replaced the bad parts of the buses.

“You know, we don’t manufacture buses and we don’t manufacture spares,” the Commissioner noted.
He added that, “we have acquired additional 50 buses. Besides, Safest Way Transport in Agege has just acquired 10 more buses, while Mutual Transports in Ejigbo Ikotun has also acquired another 30 buses. We have a total of about 80 to 90 new buses now, which will soon be introduced; we are also working hard with the operators to improve their capacity to fix their buses.”
He also noted that, “we are working hard with the owners of those buses to ensure that they improve on the quality of their services.”
Some BRT buses plying the state have been likened to Molue, which are mostly rickety mass transit buses plying the roads in the state.

September 24, 2013