SUV Plunges Into Lagos Canal, Two Fight For Life

​A distracted motorist making a phone call behind the wheel narrowly escaped death after his luxury SUV veered off the road and plunged into a swampy canal along the busy Lagos-Badagry Expressway.

​The near-fatal lone accident, which occurred at the notorious Mowo axis inward Badagry, left the driver and a female passenger with horrific injuries.

​First responders from the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) confirmed that the vehicle involved—a black Lexus Jeep bearing registration number JJJ 19 KK—was traveling at high speed when the disaster occurred.

​Distraction Meets Excessive Speed

​According to preliminary accident reports, the driver was actively engaged in a mobile phone conversation when he suddenly lost concentration. The SUV careened wildly off the tarmac, somersaulted multiple times through the air, and crashed roof-first into a deep bush canal running parallel to the expressway.

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​Traffic officials noted that the driver’s excessive speeding severely compounded the impact, leaving the vehicle a mangled wreck of twisted metal submerged in the swamp.

​Emergency crews faced a race against time to extricate the victims from the crushed cabin. The driver sustained catastrophic internal injuries and was pulled unconscious from the driver’s seat. His female passenger suffered a compound fracture to her left arm, alongside severe lacerations and blunt-force trauma.

​Both victims were rushed under emergency escort to the Ola-Oki Medical Facility in Ibereko, Badagry, where medical teams are currently battling to stabilize their conditions.

​LASTMA Appreciates Quick Response, Issues Stern Warning

​LASTMA recovery teams deployed heavy-duty towing equipment to hoist the shattered SUV out of the canal, clearing debris from the corridor to avert secondary collisions on the high-speed expressway. Thanks to swift traffic diversion protocols, gridlock was successfully minimized.

​Reacting heavily to the incident, LASTMA General Manager Mr. Olalekan Bakare-Oki expressed profound frustration over motorists’ continuous defiance of traffic laws.

​”It is deeply disheartening that despite our relentless public enlightenment campaigns and strict advocacy, some drivers still choose to play Russian roulette with their lives,” Bakare-Oki stated. “Dividing your attention between a mobile phone and the road while speeding is a recipe for tragedy. We urge motorists to drop their phones, respect speed limits, and prioritize safety.”

​An investigation into the crash is ongoing, and authorities have reiterated that distracted driving remains one of the leading killers on Lagos state highways.