900 train passengers escape death

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The
Iddo-bound train rammed into an articulated vehicle at the Ilupeju Railway
Crossing
Over nine hundred passengers
aboard an Iddo-bound 10-coach train escaped death on Friday morning when their
train rammed into an articulated vehicle at the Ilupeju Railway Crossing
near Oshodi, Lagos. The accident, which occurred at about 7:30 a.m., led to
traffic gridlock along the Ilupeju/Oshodi road for several hours.

Confirming
the accident, Ademuyiwa Adekanbi, the Lagos District Public Relations Officer
of the Railways, said that no life was lost in the incident.

Adekanbi
said that the corporation has embarked on enough enlightenment campaigns on the
use of the railway crossings.
“We
have done enough jingles on radio and television, we have rallies and
distributed fliers to sensitise people of the right of way of a train at
level crossings,” he said. Each of the coaches on the train has 90 seats which
are usually overloaded.
An
eyewitness told journalists that the articulated vehicle blocked the
railway crossing when the train was already close by.
The
loaded trailer had crashed into the double barriers on the railway crossing
shortly before the train arrived.
On
seeing the approaching train, the driver jumped out of the trailer and ran
away. The train then dragged the truck for some distance, scattering the goods
inside it, which were mostly empty cartons of Malta Guinness
drink, along the track.
The
dragging of the truck also led to the damaging of some vehicles parked along
the rail track by motor mechanics.
It
was gathered that the accident caused some damage to the engine of the
locomotive and the track.
The
incident makes it the third time in August that passenger trains have rammed
into vehicles at railway crossings in the Lagos metropolis.

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