Car Kills Mechanic, Throws Him Off Obalende Bridge (Graphic Photo)

Tragedy occurred on Obalende Bridge on Saturday at about 4pm when a fast moving Kia saloon car with plate number JJJ 537 DP crushed a mechanic, identified simply as Waidi to death and threw him off the bridge. The victim’s body, it was learnt, landed in a residential area under the bridge with broken head and legs. When P.M.NEWS correspondent arrived the scene at about 4.25pm huge crowd had gathered on the Obalende bridge trying to catch a glimse of the scene, while the police from the Lion Building Division and the officials of the ambulance section of the Lagos Island General Hospital were also seen evacuating the corpse of the victim into a van with registration number SMK 302 BK to the mortuary.

Officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, were around to control the heavy traffic that had built up on the bridge. An eyewitness informed our correspondent that the accident occurred when the victim, a resident of Bariga area of Lagos drop off a bus atop the Obalende bridge and dashed across the road to the other side to continue his journey, unknown to him that a fast moving car was approaching. According to a motorist, Solomon Ikhide, “dropping picking up of passengers by bus drivers has been causing fatal accidents on the bridge daily.

“Though the police at the Lion Building Division led by the DPO in charge, CSP Antonia Tanaruno and the LASTMAastma officials at Olowu have been doing their best to dislodge the drivers, I am now appealing to the Chairman of the Lagos State Task Force on Environmental Sanitation, SP Olubukola Abe to please deploy his men atop the Obalende bride to assist the police stop illegal loading of passengers to prevent accidents and the untimely deaths on the bridge.” Another eyewitness, Mr Jude Eshiet, said accidents have claimed the lives of more than ten passengers on the bridge this year alone. “Security officials should henceforth not allow the death toll to continue and any driver arrested there loading or dropping passengers should be charged to court to serve as a deterrent to others,” Eshiet said. Efforts made to contact the Task Force Chairman for comment was frustrated by the Unit’s PRO.