Dare Babalola
Commuters on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway were stuck in a sea of vehicles for hours on Wednesday morning after a Mack truck suffered a mechanical failure at the Otedola Bridge, bringing traffic to a grinding halt.
A minor battery failure on the Mack truck quickly turned into a major traffic nightmare when the vehicle overturned during a botched private recovery attempt, spilling two 20ft containers across the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and blocking the road completely.
The obstruction paralysed movement in both directions, causing a massive backlog of vehicles that stretched as far back as the Kara Bridge.
This came as the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority has since successfully recovered and removed the containers, restoring smooth traffic flow.
In a statement on Wednesday, the agency confirmed, “The two containerised boxes have been successfully recovered and removed from the roadway. Traffic is moving very fast. Our officers are still on the ground, managing traffic and ensuring smooth vehicular movement.”
According to the statement, the Mack truck “developed a battery/mechanical fault on Otedola Bridge inward Secretariat.”
During an attempted private recovery, the truck overturned, causing the containers to fall onto the roadway, resulting in heavy traffic on both the inward and outward sections of the expressway.
LASTMA said that in response, a high-capacity tow truck was deployed, and a crane was on its way, while the agency’s Rescue & Recovery Team “was also on ground at the scene for vehicle removal and traffic control, with personnel fully on ground.”
The agency added that the traffic backlog had earlier extended beyond Kara Bridge as recovery operations continued, but assured motorists that the highway had now been cleared and vehicular movement restored.
