Bus driver crushes three siblings to death in Lagos

Etim Effiong

A bus driver crushed three siblings to death in the Agege area of Lagos on Sunday night.

It was learnt that two of the victims died on the spot while the third victim died on the way to a hospital. The fourth was said to be in a critical condition at an undisclosed hospital.

It, however, gathered that the driver of the bus was heavily drunk, which led to his dangerous driving.

A bystander told Daily Trust about the gory scene on the narrow road around Alfa Nla in Oniwaya, Agege.

Angry residents were said to have descended on the driver whom they nearly killed.

Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) unit of the state police command eventually rescued him.

The mob shattered the windscreens and the glasses of the bus which they wanted to set ablaze, but they were prevented by the police.

A resident, Salihu Suleiman, said, “It happened close to my house, two houses to my house, he crushed those girls and guys.

“The two girls died straight and the last one also died before they got to the hospital. The four people were of the same parents. Come and see human beings’ skulls on ground yesterday.

“Two people’s skulls were on the ground. The driver was completely drunk. The kind of beating he got yesterday, if not for some of us, they would have killed him. They beat him with sticks and cutlasses, but the police came to rescue him.

“But I am not sure he would survive. The police did not allow him to die there. All the RRS people came in 10 vehicles to rescue him. They took him to the hospital, I’m sure they couldn’t carry him to the station because if they had taken him to the station, he would have died there.

“They wanted to burn the bus but if they had burnt it there, it would have affected other places. That was why they did not burn the bus, but they broke all the glasses of that bus before the police carried it away. Imagine this happened a few days to Sallah.”

A resident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, blamed the accident on over-speeding.

He, however, said people that parked indiscriminately on both sides of the road, including Tricycle riders, also contributed to it.

The eyewitness said, “The bus was on speed on that narrow road. Those guys and the girls were already on the road and you know how these drivers drive recklessly.

“He was on his normal lane but on speed because he was drunk. A normal person cannot be driving that way on a densely populated road.

“But people that parked their vehicles and Marwa (Tricycles) on the main road also contributed to this. If that had not happened, those girls would not have been close to the main road. And again if that BRT was not on speed, definitely he would have slowed down before he got to them.”

When contacted, the spokesman of the State Police Command, Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi, said he would find out about the incident later.