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BOJI BOJI AGBOR – Passers by including the ever busy commercial motorcyclists, (Okada), were thrown into a state of confusion on Wednesday, July 8, 2009, along the Old Lagos Asaba Road, in Ika South Local Government Area, when a trailer with registration number, Ogun XD 104 SGM, loaded with heavy iron rods began to descend the slope on top speed towards the Orogodo River. It was an accident that sent everyone around running for dear life.
According to the driver of the trailer who was dazed by the accident, he was conveying some iron pillars to Onitsha from Benin, when he was flagged down by some men at Agbor, along the new Lagos- Asaba Road. As soon as he parked the trailer by the side of the road, the men began to deman for the vehicle stickers. After so much pleas from the driver to allow him go, since his particulars were complete. He was forced to turn his vehicle towards the direction of the office of the men in charge of stickers.
The driver, then drove the vehicle through the new Lagos Asaba expressway into the Old Benin Asaba Road from the Agbor Obi axis. By the time he got to the point where he was to negotiate a turn into the task force premises, the driver discovered that he could no longer control the trailer; as it kept moving down the slope, towards the College Junction. He began to shout at the top of his voice for those who were at the junction to leave the road. The traffic control officers at the junction, on seeing what was happening, quickly began to clear the way; upon which the trailer sped past the junction and kept on moving down the slope towards the Orogodo River.
Meanwhile a commercial motorcycle rider who had earlier seen what was happening at the College Junction had began to speed down the slope, ahead of the trailer. The Okada man, blowing the horn of his bike, and its head lamp beaming, kept shouting to road users, including pedestrians, to quickly leave the road for an on coming trailer that has failed brake.
Speaking further, the driver said that when he realized he could no longer control the vehicle, he and his second driver had to jump out of the moving trailer. As the vehicle began to speed down the slope without anyone inside it, panic gripped everyone around, considering the amount of damage that the accident was going to cause. Nevertheless, the vehicle eventually veered into right side of the road, just some few meters away from the Orogodo bridge, destroying the concrete walls of gutter by the side of the road. When passers by saw what happened they kept praising God, saying that no life was lost in the accident. They reasoned that if it had been during the rush hours when school children and workers do ply the road large numbers many deaths would have been recorded. However, the wreckage of the trailer is still lying by the side of the road at the time of filing this report.
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