The driver and conductor of a BRT bus have fled for their lives, abandoning passengers to their fate as a BRT bus caught fire at Maryland, Lagos State, on Saturday morning.
Our correspondent, who was at the scene of the incident, said the bus was coming from Ikorodu, heading to CMS, when the sad incident occurred. As of the time of filing this report, officers of the Nigeria Police Force, the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), fire service and the neighbourhood security outfit were already on ground to contain the fire.
One of the passengers on the bus said the fire started as smoke from the driver’s side. According to her, the passengers initially thought the smoke emanated from other buses, however, the small smoke soon worsened, immediately sending them all into panic mode.
“As soon as we saw that the smoke grew bigger, we immediately rushed off the bus before the fire ignited”, she said, adding that none of the passengers sustained any injury. She added that the driver fled the scene immediately after the fire started. “The driver and the conductor ran away. They didn’t even wait to see what would happen to us.
“Definitely, they knew what happened. They knew the bus was bad before putting it on the road and risking our lives,” she alleged.
