A tragic Sunday afternoon on Lagos roads resulted in the deaths of at least two people and left several others with critical injuries following multiple vehicle accidents. The most severe incident occurred around 3:15 p.m. on the Kara Bridge section of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, where a fully loaded truck conveying bags of flour lost control and overturned.
The falling truck triggered a chain reaction, ramming into a Toyota Corolla, a Toyota RAV4 SUV, and two fully loaded interstate Mazda buses. LASTMA officials confirmed that two fatalities were recorded at the scene, with the resulting gridlock stretching back to the Alausa Secretariat and Magodo.
The Kara Bridge accident caused immediate pandemonium as emergency responders from LASTMA, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), and the Nigeria Police worked to extricate victims and offload the flour to clear the lanes. Eyewitnesses described a chaotic scene with injured passengers being moved in pick-up trucks to nearby hospitals.
While recovery operations were underway, traffic backed up for several kilometers, forcing many travelers to abandon their vehicles or walk long distances to find alternative transportation. By late evening, partial recovery of the affected vehicles had allowed for a slow restoration of traffic flow.
In a separate but equally violent collision on Ikorodu Road, a Volkswagen commercial bus driver sustained multiple fractures after ramming into stationary vehicles at the Ojota inbound Ketu axis. Preliminary reports indicate that a Toyota Sienna had slowed down to allow a large crowd of pedestrians to cross the expressway when the speeding Volkswagen bus failed to decelerate.
The driver was trapped within the mangled wreckage for nearly an hour before LASTMA operatives used specialized extrication equipment to free him. He was rushed to a medical facility in critical condition, while police from the Ogudu Division managed crowd control at the scene.
Lagos State authorities have expressed deep concern over the rising trend of Sunday afternoon accidents. Sola Giwa, the Special Adviser on Transportation, urged motorists to exercise extreme caution and adhere to speed limits, particularly in areas with high pedestrian activity.
LASTMA General Manager Olalekan Bakare-Oki reiterated that the agency remains on high alert with increased surveillance to prevent secondary accidents. As of Monday morning, January 19, 2026, traffic along the affected corridors has largely returned to normal, though the wreckage of the flour truck remains a reminder of the weekend’s devastation.
