Otedola Bridge Incident: LASG vows to fully enforce transport law 

Lagos State government haa vowed to enforce a strict “no truck” policy across the state, following a devastating gas truck explosion that occurred under the Otedola Bridge on Tuesday night.

Commissioner for Transportation, Mr Oluwaseun Osiyemi, stated this when he led a team from the ministry to the accident scene to assess the situation.

Osiyemi noted that the truck had violated Lagos State law by ignoring a “no truck allowed” sign on the road, stressing that the Ministry of Transportation would enforce the policy to prevent similar accidents.

He said: “We came here to do an assessment of the situation of what happened two days ago. We’ve sent an initial team, but we had to come ourselves to confirm the situation and also see what actually went wrong.

“But what we’ve been able to at least see immediately is the fact that, one, there’s a road sign right there that says ‘no truck allowed’. And for the truck to be on this axis, evidently it’s violated the law of Lagos State.

“As the Ministry of Transportation, I’m going to take steps to ensure that we enforce that sign, maybe by way of barrier and not allowing such trucks to ply this kind of road. When you look at the road, it’s quite undulated, and it’s not even motorable for those kinds of trucks. So the whole essence is one, assess what’s on the ground; two, to be able to bring up things that would avert such situations.”

The commissioner attributed the cause of the accident to poor truck maintenance, citing the failure of truck owners to properly inspect and maintain their vehicles. This, he noted, has led to a surge in accidents involving trucks on Lagos roads.

He hinted that the state government is working with the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, to inspect trucks and ensure they are roadworthy.