Many passengers escaped death when two trains collided in Lagos on Wednesday.
Four people were however injured.
It was learnt that the accident was due to the absence of signal operator at the Mushin Station terminus in Lagos.
An eyewitness, who identified herself simply as Bisi, said when one of the trains, which was coming from Ijoko in Ogun State got to the terminus, it stopped for passengers to disembark.
Bisi added that as the Iddo-bound train driver was waiting to be cleared, the train coming from Iddo rammed into it.
It was gathered that the signal operator had gone to defecate and asked his assistant to take over but his assistant forgot, leading to the collision.
A trader near the rail track, Ngozi Nelson, told PUNCH Metro that the accident occurred because the train operators were not properly guided.
She said, “The train from Iddo was coming with high speed unknown to the driver that there was another train on the track.
“By the time the driver got to where the train was stationed waiting for direction, his brakes failed.”
A tailor in the area, who craved anonymity, said the impact of the accident threw the entire neighbourhood into chaos.
“We thought it was a bomb blast. It was when we got there that we found out it was train collision. Some passengers sustained injuries. But I do not think anybody died,” he said.
The man, who looked downcast, said the accident was unfortunate.
“The trains have been removed as you can see. It was not as serious as people exaggerated,” he said.
As at 2pm when one of our correspondents was leaving the terminus, officials of the corporation were clearing some of the debris of the accident.
Meanwhile, the management of Nigerian Railway Corporation has confirmed the accident.
The NRC Assistant Director Public Relations, Mr. David Ndakotsu, in a statement on Wednesday, said no one died in the accident.
He said, “The two trains involved in the accident at Mushin Railway Station were mass transit trains, one coming from Iddo to Ijoko and the other from Ijoko to Iddo.
“There were no fatalities. However, three out of the four injured persons were treated at Railway Clinic and have since been discharged.
“The NRC management has since set up a committee to investigate the cause of the accident. Normal services have since resumed in Lagos.”
(PUNCH)
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NRC,an acronyme for "No Regular Control",the driver can sleep while the train moves. There is nothing like efficiency in NRC,no matter who heads it as long as there are too many dead woods running its operations,no matter the title they bear.
ReplyDeleteNawao! a country of strange happenenings. there is nothing we will not hear in Nigeria. this is an aberration
ReplyDeleteThis is very annoying and rather distressing. Thankfully no one died. How could the assistant signal operator have forgotten? What was he doing? I hope he has been sacked. This also means that we are rather technologically backward as such things as signalling should be automated although to be fair such train control systems require constant power supply to run as well as considerable setup cost. I hope the train operators now realize they need to have 3 signal operators instead of 2.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why Nigerians' case is always different? we behave as if we still part of the primitives.
ReplyDelete