Streaks of dried blood, broken glass, and wrung metal plates lined the rail tracks right opposite the PWD Bus Station, Shogunle, Ikeja, Lagos State.
Trapped in the squashed vehicle were sweaty faces, tired breaths, and bloodied bodies, struggling to find their way out to the rays of the morning light above.
Earlier, residents watched in shock how an oncoming train collided with a staff bus, filled with passengers en route to the Alausa Secretariat, Ikeja, from Ikotun, pushing them metres away before coming to a halt.
Saturday PUNCH gathered that the driver of the BRT had veered into the rail track despite signs from the level crossing flag bearers and other motorists urging him not to do so as a train was oncoming.
“It all happened in a split second. One moment, the bus was waiting. Another moment, he had ‘jumped’ onto the level crossing, causing a crash,” an eyewitness, simply identified as Chioma, told one of our correspondents.
Corroborating Chioma’s claim, a Chief Mechanical Engineer and Lagos District Manager, Nigeria Railway Corporation, Mr Augustine Arisa, said the train which collided with the Lagos State Staff BRT pushed it 100m further before finally making a stop because of the high velocity the train came with.
Arisa noted that around 7.50am, he received a distress call from one of the train drivers of the NRC, alerting his office to a train-bus accident at the Shogunle Level Crossing.
He said, “On further interaction, we found out that the Level-Crossing Keeper was there. The LCK is the man with the red and yellow flags at all times at the level crossing.
“If he gives you the red flag, you are to stop. If he gives you the yellow flag, you are to move with caution. If he gives the yellow flag to the train driver, that means he has asked the train driver to start coming.
“With that, the train driver has the confidence that the rail is clear for him to drive through. This simply means all buses should wait and not move till the yellow flag is given to them. With that, the train driver has the confidence that the rail is clear for him to drive through.”
The district manager also stated that the BRT driver veered off from where other buses were waiting and entered the track, ignoring the red flag by the level crossing keeper.
He said, “Before the train driver could stop, he had already hit the vehicle (BRT) and carried it to a distance of about 100 metres before finally stopping. This is because the train cannot stop immediately.”
He further emphasised that no one should be on the rail track for whatever reason, adding that anyone seen on the rail track is an intruder.
BRT driver had earphones on – Eyewitnesses
Many eyewitnesses, who spoke to Saturday PUNCH, claimed that the BRT driver plugged in earphones as he drove the staff through the level crossing.
A trader, Mrs Mmesoma Akachi, who sold wares at the rail track, told our correspondents that the driver paid no attention to the flag bearers who flagged him to stop with the red flag.
She said, “The driver is very reckless and impatient. He should have waited. It will not take too long before the train will pass and he will have his way. But, no, he decided to rush through. Now, see the mess he made.”
Another trader, Chika Joe, said, the incident happened too fast.
She had just arrived at her shop and was arranging some wares when she saw smoke billowing from a distance.
“I saw a train pass and buses waiting. But I did not know that the BRT driver refused to wait. In fact, they were whistling at him, shouting and flagging him to stop. But he refused. Maybe he was in a hurry,” she said with baited breath.
The trader added that in a few minutes, she saw the train had carried the BRT down to the other side of the level crossing, smashing into a fence.
The remains of a young woman covered in a pool of blood were seen between the tracks.
Residents said she had attempted to jump off the train but hit her head on a slab of stone, which made her bleed to death.
The once busy Ikeja rail tracks often filled with traders were scanty when Saturday PUNCH visited the scene of the incident on Thursday.
Only a few traders were seen, sadly seated as they attended to customers.
One of them was Iya Agbo, who sells medicinal herbs at the entrance of the bus stop.
She told our correspondents that she was still in shock at how the driver blatantly defied the orders of the rail flagmen.
Speaking in Pidgin English, she said, “I thought the BRT was waiting like other buses but was shocked when he just drove into the track. Everyone was shouting, asking him to reverse or drive really fast before the train hit him.
“There was a vehicle in front of him so there was a limit to how far he could go. Though the front part of the bus had crossed, the back was hit by the train and pushed many metres away from the site of the collision.”
Another eyewitness, who did not want to be named, claimed that the BRT driver did not hear the noise of the whistle from the level crosser.
He said, “The man (driver) was not focused. He plugged in a device in his ears that did not allow him to hear the noise. I could hear it from the other end of PWD where I was. It is still a wonder why he couldn’t hear it.
“I rushed to the scene to see what I could do, but I broke down crying. I saw young people. I saw women covered in blood. A middle-aged man just sat on the floor; he couldn’t even stand when we tried to help him. His legs were shaking.”
An officer of the Federal Road Safety Corps, who refused to identify himself because he was not authorised to speak to the press on the matter, said the driver tried to escape but was caught by some young men who identified him.
“One part of the bus had already crossed. It was the other part that was still on the track. You need to see the blood here,” he added.
A walk through the track showed some debris from the bus and patches of blood.
I flagged down BRT driver five times – Flagman
A level crossing keeper with the NRC, who refused to give his name for security reasons but claimed to have been on duty at the time of the crash, told Saturday PUNCH that he flagged the BRT driver conveying the government workers to stop more than five times but he refused to do so.
He said, “I kept waving the red flag, whistling and shouting, asking the BRT driver not to make the move to cross as a train was oncoming at high speed but he refused to hear me. Now, see what has happened.
“Nobody will blame me for not doing my job. If they call me anywhere to defend myself, I will. I make sure to arrive here very early in the morning for my shift but some of these drivers do not listen.”
The flagman added that some drivers who used the level crossing could be very impatient, noting that if he flagged them down, they would cuss at him and still pass.
“One day, one of them even spat at me because I flagged him down to save his life. You won’t believe that particular driver still drove past the crossing despite the warning.
“I am just angry the BRT driver had passengers. If it was just him, I wouldn’t be this pained,” he added.
On whether the driver had earphones, the flagman said, “No matter the earphone someone has on if a train is coming, the ground vibrates. Everyone knows. Why did he try to run when the accident occurred, leaving the passengers he was carrying to die in the vehicle? Why?”
The Director, Public Affairs and Enlightenment Department of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, Adebayo Taofiq, told Saturday PUNCH that the bus was fully loaded with members of staff of the state government, adding that the driver was not patient enough.
He said, “One cannot easily calculate the number of staff members on the bus; it is the same as BRT. Some were standing because it was a fully-loaded bus. The driver was supposed to have waited for the train because he still had time. It wasn’t 8am yet, so why the rush?
“The train dragged the bus to an extent. While some people were fast to have jumped out of the bus, some were trapped.”
Officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, National Emergency Management Agency and Federal and State Fire Service, among others, were seen at the scene when Saturday PUNCH arrived.
A resident, Michael Ogodo, commending the team of rescuers said it didn’t take first responders much time to show up at the scene.
He said, “If the emergency officials didn’t come on time as they did today, the casualties would have been more.
“Many persons were bleeding from their heads, mouths and nostrils at the same time. I even saw a young boy struggling to stand up. He was covered in blood. It was the scariest thing I had ever seen.”
No bed for casualties
From the site of the tragic incident which happened between Sogunle and the Ikeja axis, emergency responders conveyed many of the casualties to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja GRA.
Saturday PUNCH gathered that about 79 of 85 passengers on the bus were revived and treated for different injuries and subsequently transferred to Gbagada General Hospital, Agege General Hospital, and the trauma centre at the toll gate area of the state.
When one of our correspondents arrived at LASUTH around 10.30am, the premises were filled with a crowd of sympathisers and security operatives.
Our correspondent first sat at the entrance of the Emergency Ward with dejected friends and families waiting for their loved ones, who sustained injuries to be admitted.
While our correspondent was there, a woman, who was one of the medical personnel, could be heard saying, “Those brought here with serious head, neck, hip, and limb injuries have been moved to another place. We can’t accommodate everyone here.”
Nurses, health workers, students, and staff of the College of Medicine of Lagos State University, along with other staff members of LASUTH, could be seen attending to the victims of the train accident, who were laid at the helipad at the hospital’s surgery emergency.
Many of the patients writhed in agony, as they were laid out on mattresses under emergency tents at the helipad with intravenous cannulation lines set above each of the patients.
Commenting on why the patients were laid under the tents instead of wards, a medical doctor, who trained at LASUTH and gave her name as Otia, said the surgical emergency ward was too small to accommodate many patients.
“The surgical emergency is very small; it can only take a maximum of 20 -30 acute emergencies. I hope they make room for an extension.
“The Gbagada General Hospital also has some space, but maybe no bed spaces at this time. The space you see being used is for helicopter landing,” she said.
Our correspondent counted at least 28 patients who were laid on these mattresses, some groaning with pain, and a number of them still unconscious, as the health workers struggled to care for them.
One of the LASUTH doctors, Dr Olabode Oshodi, assured one of the patients’ relatives, saying, “There will be evacuation to make more rooms available for the patients. They can’t stay here under the tents. We will soon transfer them inside as soon as bed spaces are available.”
Severe injuries
Most of the patients sustained varying degrees of cuts across their faces, arms, chests, and legs.
Their wounds were observed to have been treated and sealed with cotton wool and plasters.
Most of their clothes were either stained or drenched with blood from the gory scene of the accident.
However, some relatives had the patients’ clothes changed.
Relatives stood around the barricades, some crying, others praying for the recovery of their loved ones.
The security operatives and the medical personnel present barred journalists from talking to or coming in contact with the patients, stating that they were recuperating and needed fresh air.
However, one of our correspondents found a way to get closer to the patients.
One of the victims, a toddler, identified only as David, sat up on his mattress.
The headmistress of his school and a family friend, who both declined to disclose their names, said he sustained a mild injury.
“His mother is a staff member of this hospital but she is not here yet; we learnt she is in stable condition. He attends our school in Ikeja and both of them were involved in the accident, but we are happy he is responding to treatment,” the headmistress said.
