Nigerian govt probes Kara Bridge deadly accidents

Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, on Tuesday, said engineers and scientists have been deployed to find out the cause of deadly accidents on Kara Bridge.

Kara Bridge on the Lagos–Ibadan highway has claimed several lives in recent years.

Fashola during an inspection tour of roads and bridges in Lagos, said the experts would analyse traffic patterns on the bridge to ascertain causes of the mishaps.

He, however, blamed reckless motorists and inexperienced truck drivers for the crashes.

Fashola said that he used the COVID-19 travel restriction period to scientifically seek solutions to Nigeria’s infrastructure problems.

“Our team has been on ground since the past two weeks. Now that the process has started, this is a good time to come back and lend support to all the people on ground. We have done all our laboratory work and now we are in the field to see how it is playing out,’’ he said.

Fashola assured that the Federal Government was responding to concerns raised by Lagos residents and Nigerians on the poor state of roads, thanking them for their understanding and cooperation.

The former Lagos governor said that rehabilitation on the main carriageway on the Apapa-Oshodi-Ojota-Oworonshoki Expressway was almost complete.

He assured that work on the Gbagada toward Third Mainland Bridge portion of the highway would be finished on schedule.

“Once we are done on the major carriageway, we would go to the service lanes. When we finish, we will move most of the traffic back on the main carriageway so that we can do the service lanes.

“You won’t see any ceremony after completion because immediately we finish any section, it has to be opened for use. It is being constructed while people use it,’’ he said.

Fashola said the Eko and Marine Beach Bridges were undergoing repairs while rehabilitation of Obalende, Kara, Falomo and Ojuelegba bridges had been completed.