During the ongoing case related to the train and Bus Rapid Transit collision that occurred on March 9, 2023, at the PWD area of Lagos, a key witness, Oluwajani Fayokemi, shared her account of the aftermath in an Ikeja High Court on Friday.
As reported by the News Agency of Nigeria, Fayokemi recounted that when the passengers, who were government employees, heard the train’s horn, they urgently requested the driver, Osibanjo Oluwaseun, to stop. However, the next moment was a deafening impact. She explained that she lost consciousness briefly after the collision, and upon regaining awareness, she witnessed a fellow passenger being struck by a stone, leading to profuse bleeding. Passersby and residents quickly rushed to their aid.
The tragic accident claimed the lives of at least six individuals, with approximately 80 others sustaining varying degrees of injuries. The Lagos State Government brought the driver to trial before Justice Oyindamola Ogala, charging him with 16 counts related to involuntary manslaughter, in violation of Sections 244 and 245 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015. The driver, however, entered a plea of not guilty.
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Babajide Martins, had told the court that the BRT driver negligently killed the victims and inflicted grievous harm on other passengers on the bus by ignoring warning signals and running into the train.
Meanwhile, at the resumed trial on Friday, Fayokemi told the court that she was a victim of the collision, noting that she had been using the BRT 33, a staff bus driven by Osibanjo, since 2018 without any accident.
Led in evidence by a deputy director in the state Ministry of Justice, Mr Jonathan Ogunsanya, the witness explained that the bus travelled from Jakande Gate to the state secretariat at Alausa as usual.
“When we got to the PWD junction of the train track, we heard the honk of a coming train,” she noted, adding that the occupants of the bus started calling on the driver whom they referred to as Oluomo but the next thing heard was a bang.
Fayokemi said the train started pushing the bus along the track and that she passed out at that point and didn’t know what happened around her for some minutes.
She added, “A few minutes later, I heard people banging the door and glass; the banging woke me up. There were passersby and ‘area boys’ trying to rescue passengers.
“I was carried on my legs and hands by the boys out of the bus because I could not move. They also carried other passengers who were injured out of the bus, while Good Samaritans in private cars also assisted.
“There was one lady I knew very well. Olayinka is her name. I saw that a stone hit her head and blood was gushing out of her head. Later on, at LASUTH, I found out that she passed away.”
The prosecution counsel asked the witness if she recalled the number of victims taken to LASUTH but she said they were many and heavily injured, adding that another lady, known as Alhaja, also died.
The defence counsel, Mr Lekan Egberongbe, asked the witness if she recalled her statement to the police after she regained consciousness, and she said the incident was still fresh in her memory.
The council asked her to point out in her statement to the police that she stated that passengers heard the honk of a coming train and called on the driver. The witness said the aspect was not recorded in her written statement.
The defence counsel asked where she was sitting on the bus, and she said she sat in the middle. The counsel then said that the driver should have been mostly affected considering that he sat in front, but the prosecution counsel objected.
Ogala, who had remanded the defendant at the Kirikiri custodial centre after his arraignment on May 2, adjourned the matter until November 8.
