A woman, Comfort Adeyemi, has been killed by a truck in the Arepo area of Ogun State. The accident, which occurred around 11am on Sunday, involved a truck marked, LAGOS 199 XH, whose driver allegedly lost control before the tragedy struck.
the deceased had travelled from Ado-Ekiti to meet her husband in Lagos before her car developed a mechanical fault at the Arepo end of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
The deceased’s driver, Taiwo Adeola, said the vehicle had been repaired adding that they were about leaving the area when the trailer rammed into the car while its container landed on Adeyemi.
The 26-year-old said, “I was the one that drove from Ado-Ekiti to this place. I parked the car by the roadside because it developed a fault. We were done repairing the car and about to leave when the trailer lost control.
“She was the one calling people’s attention to the truck, telling them to run for safety. I was in front of the bonnet and I quickly ran; she wanted to escape through the back of the car before the trailer hit the car and the container fell on her and the car.”
An eyewitness, Oluwasegun Tejuoso, said the truck had initially hit a car before it hit the woman and killed her.
The Ogun State indigene said, “The truck came from nowhere and hit a Toyota Camry, but the driver quickly drove into the NNPC filling station at Arepo.
“The truck ran into a ditch close to where the woman parked her car. It was at that point that the container fell on her and her car.”
The husband of the deceased, Omojobola, who said he was in Lagos for an official assignment added that he had advised his wife to park somewhere to fix the car when she informed him that the car had developed a fault.
The naval officer said, “Actually, I was not with the vehicle; my wife was coming to Lagos. She was to come on Friday; but when I told her that I would be coming to Lagos on Saturday with my colleagues for an official assignment, she said she would rather make the journey today.
“This morning, immediately she took off from Ekiti around 7.30am, she called me that they were on their way. Around 10.30am, she called me that the car had developed a fault. I told them to park it somewhere; they were close to Lagos already, they were coming to Sparklight Estate. However, my brother who drove the car called me that a trailer ran over my wife as she was standing near the vehicle. I don’t know what to do.”
The General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Adesina Tiyamiyu, said the agency responded immediately it was alerted, adding that the woman’s corpse was recovered from the scene of the accident.
Adesina said, “A motorist on the route saw the accident and called in around 12.19pm. Incidentally, a team was on Otedola Bridge attending to another issue. So, we moved the team there immediately and discovered that it was a container-laden truck that fell on a Honda car and killed a lady who was at the back seat. We understand that they were travelling from Ekiti to Lagos.
“We have been able to retrieve the body. We will hand everything over to the police for investigation. We want to remove the vehicle from the road so that it will not cause another accident.”
The Ogun command’s Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the driver of the trailer had been arrested.