14 Passengers Escape Unhurt As Fire Guts Commercial Bus On Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

A total of Fourteen passengers inside a commercial bus escaped unhurt as their vehicle was gutted by fire in the early hours of Saturday, on the long bridge of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

It was gathered that the Toyota Hiace, with number plate AFN117YL, which was headed to Ilorin carrying 14 passengers, and took off from the Ijora motor park in Lagos State nearly skidded off the road when one of the tyres burst, causing it to fall on its side as it hit the sidewalk of the bridge.

The bus, which had already caught fire, finally came to a stop in the middle of the road as the passengers scampered for safety.

The bus driver who gave his name as Razak Ajiboro made it known in an interview that it was one of the tyres on the driver’s side that burst while in motion.

He recounted, “It was the front tyre at the driver’s side of the bus that burst while it was in motion. The impact on the median was what caused the fire. It was just the grace of God that helped us, if not, the bus would have fallen off the bridge. It was God who controlled the bus and not me the driver. If not, we’d all be dead by now.”

The driver who was clutching his left hand in pain and still apprehensive about the incident expressed appreciation to God that no life was lost in the inferno.

“There were 14 passengers in the bus, besides a few scratches, none of them sustained serious injuries, neither was there loss of any life”, he said.

He revealed that no property belonging to him or any of the passengers was rescued from the fire.

“Everything in the bus got burnt. We could not save anything at all because the fire spread so fast. All the passengers’ belongings got burnt in the fire. As you can see, some of them could not even pick their footwear as they were struggling to get out of the bus”, the driver noted with a shaky voice.

Speaking further, the driver who spoke with a teary eye revealed that the bus didn’t belong to him but to his boss.

“The bus doesn’t belong to me, it belongs to my oga, I have called people to inform him of the accident. My two phones and other belongings I had with me got burnt in the fire”, he noted.

As of the time of this report, another bus had come to convey the passengers to their destination, while men of the Federal Road Safety Corp and the Nigeria Police were on the ground to ensure the free flow of traffic and the security of lives and properties.