Commuters have woken up to yet another ugly traffic situation on Thursday, a second day of the gridlock experienced on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

This follows the accident that occurred at about 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday, in which a diesel tanker and a truck collided, leading to an explosion involving two other vehicles.

With the relentless effort of the emergency agencies, comprising the FRSC, NSCDC, LASEMA and the police, in putting out the fire outbreak and clearing the debris from the expressway, it seemed like the problem would have been abated before night fall but unfortunately that was not the case.

The incident necessitated the condoning-off of the outbound Lagos-lane which led to the undue congestion on the opposite lane where people struggled to move against the traffic.

As at 04:45 a.m. on Thursday morning, lengthy back lights from cars, buses, trailers to trucks could be sighted far beyond one’s reach, stretching the lengthy expressway, with a stop point for adjoining vehicles heading towards Mowe-Ibafo/Lagos-outbound lane.

Motorists picked on the modus-operandi applied on Wednesday during the gridlock, this time without the presence or directives of the agencies, as Lagos in-bound lanes transformed into a two-way lane.

As at 07:45 a.m., on our breakfast show, Sunrise Daily a Channels Television Correspondent, Sulaiman Aledeh, who was held up in the gridlock, hinted about the situation on ground.

He said that all routes pointing to the Lagos-Ibadan expressway are on Lock-down, as both out-bound and in-bound lanes of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway were totally blocked and no road traffic agency was in sight at the time.

Speaking to Federal Road Safety Corps Marshall, Boboye Oyeyemi, also on the breakfast show, he explained what has led up to the situation on the road so far.

“The Lagos Ibadan expressway has the highest traffic density in the country, of about 25,000 vehicles per hour,” he said.

This data according to him, is what led to the on-going construction aimed at expanding the roads from the two-way lane to three.

He explained that “when this kind of construction is on-going, there is bound to be such chaotic situation, however, even before the construction started, there have been series of traffic alerts by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).”

While commending efforts of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, and other agencies who helped to ease off the traffic on Wednesday, he said men have currently been deployed to make the situation better.

•Text courtesy of Channels TV. Photo by Vera Okwuoma Oluaoha shows the gridlock . . . on Wednesday.

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