Motorists and commuters on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway were stranded for more than 14 hours on Tuesday after a seven-vehicle crash at Kara Bridge worsened congestion caused by ongoing repair works.
The crash occurred early Tuesday and involved a 40-foot container truck, Toyota Hilux, interstate bus, Hyundai Odyssey, Sienna, Toyota Highlander and Mitsubishi Hilux.
The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency said preliminary findings showed that the container truck developed a mechanical fault, causing the driver to lose control and hit the other vehicles.
LASEMA said its response team arrived at the scene around 6:05am and, with LASTMA and the police, cleared the affected vehicles from the carriageway. No death or injury was recorded.
However, the resulting traffic spread from Kara towards Magboro and into Lagos. Some motorists also drove against traffic to escape the congestion, creating another bottleneck around the OPIC section.
By 7pm, traffic had reportedly extended towards Iyana-Oworo, while fares on some routes rose sharply as commuters struggled to find alternative means of transportation.
The incident came amid ongoing repairs to damaged expansion joints on the Kara Bridge. The two-week rehabilitation, which began on September 8, has already caused severe congestion along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, with traffic previously stretching from Kara to the 7Up Junction and other parts of Lagos.
LASTMA officials and other traffic management agencies were deployed to the affected areas to ease movement.
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