An articulated truck mowed down a commercial motorcyclist and knocked down a pedestrian on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway on Sunday, leaving one dead and sparking a chase that ended in tragedy.
The truck, fully loaded and speeding from the Volkswagen area towards Badagry, hit the pedestrian first near Iyana-Iba Flyover close to Lagos State University in Ojo. The driver did not stop. A motorcyclist who witnessed the hit decided to give chase, with a sympathiser riding along as passenger.
Olalekan Bakare-Oki, the General Manager of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), said the truck driver rammed into the pursuing motorcycle as he fled. The motorcyclist died. His passenger escaped without injury. "The accident is regrettable," Bakare-Oki said through the agency's Director of Public Affairs, Taofig Adebayo.
LASTMA's Night Gang Surveillance and Monitoring Patrol Team, stationed along the expressway, found the motorcyclist trapped under the truck's front tyre and evacuated his body. Police at Okokomaiko station and officers from the Federal Road Safety Corps took the truck driver into custody for investigation.
