Frozen Foods Truck Crashes On Cab kills driver

AS an eyewitness at the scene of late Friday night’s auto crash puts it, “it was a real… real close shave with death” for the taxi driver, Mr. Benjamin Ademuyiwa and his passenger.

The passenger, a middle- aged man, had hired Ademuyiwa’s Nissan Sunny Saloon car (registration number, XR 05 EPE), at the Ajao Estate Taxi Park, near the popular 7/8 Bus Stop, Murtala Muhammed International Airport Road. But the journey had barely started when the customer asked him to pull over so he could use an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) belonging to the Zenith Bank.

No sooner had he pulled in front of the bank, away from the traffic, than a Mercedes truck (registration number XB 368 LAR) fell on the cab, with Ademuyiwa escaping death by the whiskers.

Although, the cab appeared to be facing the wrong direction, it was clearly parked off the road. The driver, reportedly, had reclined backwards on the seat as he awaited his passenger’s return.

The driver of the truck, laden with frozen fish, was said to have lost control after one of the front tyres burst.  He reportedly sustained injuries and was taken to the Kupa Medical Centre, Ajao Estate, and later to a military hospital at Oshodi by relatives.

Although the accident occurred late Friday night, the lorry had already been evacuated as at 7am yesterday when The Guardian visited the scene.

Ademuyiwa appeared dazed yesterday. His colleagues at the Ajao Estate Taxi Park said the matter has been reported to the police.

“He said he never saw it coming, as he relaxed in the vehicle, waiting for the passenger. In fact, he actually thought it was a Boko Haram bomb,” said a colleague, on behalf Ademuyiwa, who though present, remained speechless.

Efforts to encourage a shocked Ademuyiwa to give a personal account of the incident failed.