Conductor burns to death in Lagos auto crash

The burnt vehicle

A bus conductor was on Thursday burnt to death after an auto crash on the Odo Iya Alaro flyover in the Maryland area of Lagos State.

Textile materials in the vehicle were also burnt in the accident which was said to have happened around 4am.

The commercial bus, with registration number, Lagos XW 350 AKD, was said to have had a burst tyre during its journey towards the Ikorodu area of the state.

Our correspondent learnt from an eyewitness that there were four people in the vehicle ─ two men, who were presumably conveying the textile wares to the market, the conductor and driver.

The witness, Idowu Kuba, said immediately the tyre burst and the vehicle lost control, the two passengers

quickly jumped out of the bus, while the driver also escaped. The conductor was, however, not lucky as he was pinned down by the bus.

She said, “The accident happened around 4am. There were four people in the bus, two young men, who wore jerseys, the driver and the conductor.

“They were heading towards Ikorodu with some textile materials in the boot when they had the accident. Three people jumped out of the vehicle, but the conductor was trapped and the driver started shouting for help.

“But other vehicles did not move near it. They all maintained a distance and before anyone knew it, the bus caught fire.”

Another witness, who pleaded anonymity because of the state civil service rule, told our correspondent that the vehicle burnt for more than one hour before firemen were alerted.

“They responded very quickly, but unfortunately, the man had been burnt to death,” he added.

When our correspondent visited the scene of the incident, he saw a bundle of burnt clothing materials on the road.

It was learnt that officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority and the police were on ground.

The Public Relations Officer of LASTMA, Bola Ajao, said the accident was due to high speeding by the driver.

She said, “The driver was speeding and when the vehicle had a burst tyre, the vehicle almost fell off the flyover, but the driver managed to climb the kerb.

“That was why the vehicle was tilted towards the side of the conductor who was then pinned to the ground.

“Shortly after, petrol spilled on the ground and the vehicle went up in flames. The conductor was burnt to death.”

The burnt vehicle

She said LASTMA towed the bus to its office at Oshodi to ease traffic on the road.

The Director of the Lagos State Fire Service, Rasak Fadipe, said firemen from the Ilupeju and Isolo divisions responded to the emergency.

He advised residents to always safeguard their lives and never hesitate to disembark a vehicle if the driver was speeding.

He said, “It was a self-caused accident that could have been avoided if the man was not speeding. When we heard, we deployed our men from the Ilupeju fire station, before asking those from the Isolo division to join them.

“If a driver is speeding and you ask him to slow down, but he fails to heed your warning, just disembark at the next bus stop.”

He said the victim’s corpse was handed over to policemen from the Ogudu Police Division.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Kenneth Nwosu, when contacted, promised to get back to our correspondent, but he had yet to do so as of press time.

However, our correspondent gathered that the family of the victim brought a bus in which they took his remains, shortly after the incident.