An elderly man lost his life on Sunday after falling from a moving commercial truck following a sudden tyre burst along the Gbagada-Oshodi Expressway, near the TREM axis in Lagos.
The fully loaded Mercedes-Benz six-tyre truck, bearing registration number ABJ 37 AC, was travelling at high speed when one of its front tyres suddenly blew out, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle.
Confirming the incident in a statement, the spokesperson for the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Adebayo Taofiq, disclosed that the victim, who was sitting in the front cabin, was thrown out of the truck during the struggle to regain stability.
He suffered fatal head injuries after striking a sharp object upon impact with the pavement, dying instantly at the scene.
“In the ensuing struggle to stabilise the truck, an elderly male passenger seated in the front cabin was flung out of the vehicle and struck his head against a sharp object. The impact proved fatal, resulting in his instantaneous death,” Taofiq stated.
Emergency personnel from the LASTMA Night Rescue Team, Pedro Police Division, and the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service cordoned off the area, evacuating the victim’s body via a Lagos State Emergency Medical Services (LASEMS) ambulance.
Because of the vehicle’s heavy cargo, officials had to transfer the consignment to another truck before recovering the overturned vehicle.
Reacting to the crash, LASTMA General Manager Olalekan Bakare-Oki extended condolences to the victim’s family, describing the death as an avoidable loss caused by excessive speeding, which severely reduced the driver’s ability to safely manage a mechanical failure.
Read Also: Desperate driver sets self, bus, LASTMA officer on fire in Lagos
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