Motorists and commuters travelling along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway were stranded for more than 14 hours on Tuesday after a seven-vehicle crash at Kara Bridge compounded traffic disruptions caused by ongoing repair works.
The crash occurred in the early hours at Kara Bridge, inward OPIC, and initially obstructed movement towards Ogun State.
The resulting gridlock later stretched beyond the Long Bridge towards Magboro and into parts of Lagos, leaving motorists stuck for several hours.
The situation worsened as some motorists resorted to driving against traffic in an attempt to escape the congestion.
Their actions created another bottleneck for vehicles travelling towards Lagos, further slowing movement along the already congested corridor.
The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency said its LRT Tiger Squad stationed at C3 was alerted following a distress call and deployed to the scene at about 6:05am.
LASEMA Permanent Secretary, Dr Olufemi Damilola Oke-Osanyintolu, said the vehicles involved were a 40-foot container truck, Toyota Hilux, interstate bus, Hyundai Odyssey, Sienna, Toyota Highlander and Mitsubishi Hilux.
According to Oke-Osanyintolu, preliminary investigation showed that the container truck developed a mechanical fault while in motion, causing the driver to lose control before colliding with the six other vehicles.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that the 40-foot container truck, while in motion, developed a mechanical fault resulting in loss of control before ramming into the six other vehicles. The Agency immediately activated its incident management protocol and assumed coordination of the scene,” LASEMA said.
The agency said it worked with the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority and the Nigeria Police Force to manage the scene, prevent secondary incidents and facilitate the recovery operation.
“With the support of private towing trucks, coordinated recovery operations were carried out and all affected vehicles were successfully evacuated from the carriageway to the roadside,” LASEMA said.
The agency added that no life was lost and no injury was recorded in the crash.
The recovered vehicles were subsequently handed over to the police for documentation and further necessary action.
Despite the eventual removal of the vehicles, the prolonged congestion had already caused severe disruption along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, with motorists reporting hours-long delays as traffic backed up towards Magboro and Lagos.
The incident occurred amid ongoing rehabilitation work on Kara Bridge, which has reduced available road space and contributed to increased congestion along the busy Lagos-Ogun corridor.
