A man, simply identified as Prince, who was allegedly listening to music
with ear piece while attempting to cross the rail lines escaped death
by the whiskers as a moving train crushed his leg and hand, at Ajayi
Farm bus-stop, opposite Adegbola street, in Ikeja area of Lagos State,
yesterday morning.
It was gathered that the victim was crossing the railway but unknown to
him a train was moving closer to him. Some sympathisers at the scene
said the noise of the moving cars along the Oshodi Iyana- Ipaja
expressway would not allow a passerby to hear the sound of a moving
train.
An eye witness claiming to be the sister of the victim, told
bossnewspapers that the man was already on the rail line with two other
friends before noticing the oncoming the metropolis train. However, his
inability to hear the blaring horns of the train because of the ear
piece on both ears made him fall victim to the train which chopped off
his ankle in the bargain.
The sister of the victim claimed that
there was no reason the man should not have heard or seen the train even
as passers-by were shouting to him. She philosophically added that it
was obvious ‘the rail was in need of blood’.
A sympathiser, Clifford Anyanwu disclosed to Leadership that before
the victim could notice that a train was close by, it was too late.
“Though
the man tried to escape from the railway, the devil was already there
to avert his escape. His trousers hooked a protruding iron in the rail
which made the train to meet him and crushed one of his legs and one of
his hands. The man wept profusely and even some women were crying for
him. Many prayed that he survives the tragedy,” he said
It was
gathered that the driver of the train which was moving towards Oshodi
area did not hoot its horn from afar to alert people that such heavy
vehicle was approaching.
Another eyewitness, who identified himself simply as Mama Adesua said,
“They were two who tried to cross the railway. One noticed that the
train was coming and quickly crossed while the other (the victim) did
not and has paid dearly for it. All efforts he made to escape proved
abortive because he was under tension and the rail iron has held his
trouser, causing the train to crush his leg and hand. I and other women
were crying like babies when we saw the helpless man in the pool of his
blood.”
It was gathered that policemen attached to Man Centre police station
were at the scene and they assisted alongside some sympathisers to rush
the victim and his severed ankle to Lagos State University Teaching
Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja.