Five people lost their lives on Thursday in a fatal accident which happened at the popular Kara Bridge along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The accident, which happened in the early hours of the day, also left a number of people injured.
General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Mr Adesina Tiamiyu, confirmed the number of deaths to Channels Television via a phone interview.
“On the spot, three people lost their lives,” he said. “But on the way to the hospital, two other people (I understand by men of the Federal Road Safety Corps who took them to the hospital) also died, meaning we lost five people to that crash.
The LASEMA boss said investigation carried out at the scene of the incident revealed that a tanker laden with 33,000 litres of ago (diesel) ram into a stationary truck carrying brewery products.
According to him, the reported oil spill on the road resulted in the multiple crashes involving some trucks and cars.
“We got a call from the Call Centre at about 7:00 in the morning that multiple accidents occurred on the long bridge, Kara inward Ibadan and our men responded very swiftly.
“On reaching the incident scene, we discovered that 16 vehicles were involved in these multiple crashes allegedly caused by a vehicle that spilled diesel on the road, which eventually made the road slippery.
“There are about eight trucks involved and eight other vehicles,” said Tiamiyu.
The incident had led to a massive gridlock on the highway, leaving motorists on both sides of the roads stuck for hours.
Mr Tiamiyu, however, said the traffic had been decongested, saying: ”the road is now free for vehicular movement, they have cleared it.”
He also confirmed the death of two other people in another accident which involved a collision between a truck and a train in the Fagba axis of Lagos State.
“We moved immediately from that incident there (on the Kara Bridge) straight to Fagba where a trailer rammed into a train. Unfortunately again, two people lost their lives to that incident,” the LASEMA boss said.