LAWMA official dies as bus, truck collide in Lagos

An official of the Lagos State Waste Management Authority was crushed to death early in the morning in the Ketu area of Lagos State in an accident involving a LAWMA truck and a minibus, popularly known as Korope.

The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) confirmed the incident and blamed it on “reckless driving and carelessness.”

The minibus, which was speeding, reportedly rammed into a stationary LAWMA truck and crushed an official of the agency in the process.

The driver of the minibus also reportedly sustained severe injuries and was rescued by LASEMA officials, who were deployed to the scene of the accident.

Permanent Secretary in charge of LASEMA, Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, in a statement on Monday, said, “Following distress alerts at 23:59hrs, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, activated the State’s Emergency Response Plans from the Command and Control Centre, Alausa.

Upon arrival of LASEMA’s Tiger Response Team at the incident scene by 00:07hrs, it was discovered that a registered commercial (yellow) minibus, popularly known as (korope), registration number AGL 97 YK, collided with a parked LAWMA truck, registration number unknown.”

According to the LASEMA boss, “Preliminary investigations at the scene indicated that the accident occurred due to reckless driving on the part of the minibus and carelessness on the part of the parked LAWMA truck, which did not indicate its ‘parked’ status with a ‘C-Caution’ sign at the required position and appropriate distance from the truck, thereby leading to a collision with the LAWMA compactor truck.

Further investigations revealed that in the process of the accident, the minibus hit a LAWMA official performing his lawful duties. Unfortunately, the LAWMA official died before the arrival of the Agency’s Response Teams.”

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He noted that “However, the driver of the accident minibus sustained significant injuries and was given immediate medical attention by Paramedics from the Agency’s Pre-Hospital Care Unit at the incident scene.

The two vehicles involved in the accident were damaged. The LAWMA compactor truck was slightly damaged at the rear, while the front and cabin of the minibus were severely damaged.”

LASEMA noted that “Safety measures were activated at the incident scene during the Recovery Operation to mitigate against any secondary incident.

Search and Rescue Operation was conducted to remove the injured driver of the minibus. The commodity (dead LAWMA official) was recovered and bagged by the Agency’s Response Team.

The remains of the deceased LAWMA official were handed over to officials of the State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit (SEHMU) for further processing.”

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