In order to prevent accidents, the Nigerian Railway Corporation says it has started building subterranean tunnels and overhead bridges at the 11-level crossings throughout Lagos State.
This occured a few days after a deadly collision between a passenger train and a BRT staff bus operated by the Lagos State Government in the state’s Ikeja neighborhood.
This was disclosed by the managing director of NRC, Mr. Fidet Okhiria, during an interview on Tuesday, March 14, 2023 in Lagos.
Okhiria said that at Oyingbo and Ebute-Metta, the corporation has begun separating the road from the rail.
At the Agege level crossing, he said that the company had built both an overhead and an underground route.
The head of NRC stated, “We will be building 11 flyovers in Lagos, but we cannot finish them all at once. They are being built in batches. We have built barriers in the past, and they have both been vandalized. We have even built automatic barriers, which have also been vandalized.
“Even though we have been fixing them, especially the automatic barriers, they only hold up for about a week after such repairs,’ the speaker said. Either they run into the barricades with their cars or someone vandalizes them over night.”
According to Okhiria, the NRC management intended to have gatemen stop cars as they approached the level crossings in order to prevent accidents.
According to Okhiria, the NRC management intended to have gatemen stop cars as they approached the level crossings in order to prevent accidents.
He stated that whenever trains approached the level crossings, NRC would send out personnel and technological equipment to warn nearby motorists.
Nonetheless, Okhiria charged that Nigerian drivers frequently disregarded traffic signs despite the fact that everyone in the world followed basic road rules. He cautioned drivers to exercise greater caution when driving across level crossings by assuring them that there was only one life.
Remember that on March 9, 2023, a passenger train crashed into a Lagos State Government BRT personnel bus at the PWD bus stop in Ikeja, causing about 85 injuries and six reported fatalities.
According to reports, the bus was claimed to be traveling from Agege when it collided with a BRT bus carrying employees of the Lagos State government while it was crossing a rail line to connect Ikeja GRA. This collision caused the vehicle to be dragged from Shogunle to the PWD area.
In the meantime, a tragic railway accident has been attributed to the driver of a Lagos State Government employee vehicle by the Nigerian Railway Corporation and the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency.
The Permanent Secretary of LASEMA, Dr. Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, informed reporters that the bus driver disregarded the NRC officials’ signals because he was impatient to cross the rail.
Also, according to a statement from the NRC’s Deputy Director of Public Relations, Yakub Mahmood, the bus failed to obey the instruction of the corporation officials as he overtook other vehicles waiting for the train to pass.
