Traffic was brought to a crawl on the Gbagada Expressway, Lagos, on Thursday following two separate accidents involving heavy-duty vehicles and several cars.
The crashes caused significant obstruction on the busy road as motorists were forced to navigate around the wreckage, resulting in a long stretch of traffic congestion.
Officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, supported by tow trucks and a forklift, were deployed to the scene to remove the damaged vehicles and restore normal traffic flow.
One of the trucks involved in the major crash had been cleared from the road as of the time of filing this report, while efforts were ongoing to evacuate the second vehicle.
A second accident occurred further along the expressway around the Charlie Boy area, involving two trailers and five other vehicles.
The five vehicles involved in the second crash had been removed from the road, while a tow truck was deployed to evacuate the two trailers that remained at the scene.
The General Manager of LASTMA, Olalekan Bakare-Oki, who spoke with journalists at the scene, said officials arrived early in the morning and had been working since 5am to restore traffic.
Bakare-Oki said the agency had deployed a forklift and two heavy-duty tow trucks, while arrangements were being made to bring in a crane to complete the recovery operation.
He said, “The major one here, all efforts are on ground to remove it. The first one has been removed about 45 minutes ago.”
Speaking on the second crash near Charlie Boy, the LASTMA boss said the five vehicles involved had already been evacuated, leaving the two trailers to be removed.
He assured motorists that the agency was making concerted efforts to clear the expressway and ease the congestion caused by the accidents.
The incidents resulted in significant delays for motorists using the Gbagada corridor, with traffic management officials continuing recovery operations to restore normal movement.