More details have emerged concerning the Thursday tragedy that saw two 20-foot containers fall on vehicles along the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway in Lagos State, leading to one fatality and four injured.
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has now provided more insight into the preliminary investigation on the incident.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday, Sector Commander, FRSC, Lagos State, Olusegun Ogungbemide, disclosed that the tragedy was caused by recklessness on the part of the driver of the articulated vehicle.
He, however, noted that preventative efforts of the Corps had reduced the frequency of such accidents in the state.
“If you look at where we are coming from, virtually every day, you would see issues of crashes involving tankers, containers falling on people. And that was what brought about the policy of latching and twist-locking. What we witnessed yesterday is quite unfortunate, that we had to lose a life.
“Before now, we’ve been having these issues of containers happening, maybe due to bad roads and misconduct of the drivers. But lives have not really been lost because of a policy. The event of yesterday would have been more devastating if not for the policy of making sure that the container is twist-locked or latched.
“The man that had that problem yesterday must be produced by the owner of that vehicle. The system has commenced. He can only run; he can’t run forever because until we decide to take responsibility for our misbehaviour and misconduct on the highway, it will continue to be business as usual. But the narrative has changed,” he said.
Speaking on the forensic investigation of the recent incident, Ogungbemide noted that the articulated truck that conveyed the fallen containers had complied with the regulation.
“Yes, it was. If you watch the video or the picture of that truck, the container was still with the truck, only that it fell on that vehicle, which the preliminary investigation confirmed that it was the misconduct or recklessness of the driver,” he said.
According to him, the FRSC has identified loopholes being exploited by errant drivers.
“We still see some of these vehicles outside (with containers that are) not twist-locked or latched – we now realised that the various points. We are talking about those that load from the ports now, where we have our operatives both the (Apapa) Wharf and the Tincan. Before you can pull out, you must be twist-locked”