The Lagos State Government at the weekend confirmed the boat collision incident reported at Ibeshe in Ikorodu axis of the state on Thursday January 21, 2016, just as it restated its commitment to continued improvement of safety on the State’s waterways.
In a statement signed by the Managing Director of the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA), Mrs. Abisola Kamson said the incident which occurred at about 8:05am was as a result of the early morning fog which led to poor visibility for the captains of the two boats.
She said the Authority was able to ascertain what led to the incident from its information gathering machinery and onsite water guards.
According to her, one of the boats (MV Cherio) which had 20 passengers on board was operating at high speed and by the time it noticed the second boat (Olaoluwa) which had no passengers on board, it was too late to avoid a collision.
She said the impact of the collision claimed the life of a passenger on board and left three other persons injured.
According to her, the three injured persons were immediately rushed to Ikorodu General Hospital and have since been transferred to LUTH for further treatment.
The LASWA boss said the enforcement of life jackets on waterways reduced the number of casualties as all passengers on board were wearing their life jackets.
She said immediately the incident was reported, LASWA deployed its water guards to monitor and oversight the situation adding that the Marine Police have also been notified and are currently carrying out an investigation.
She also restated the commitment of the State Government to enforcement of speed limits on the waterways by operators as well as aggressive campaign and enforcement of guidelines for commercial boat operators to stem boat accidents in the future.
I was a victim of the accident, The so called Olaoluwa has to be jailed bcos he ran away immediately e hitted my own boat, and my boat broke into pieces immediately, if e had stopped to rescue us dat moment he collided with the second boat, am sure no life will be lost and even d ones that sustained bloody injuries would have been attended to on time bcos we were on the sea for over 15minutes shouting for help before this boat dat was just passing by came to rescue us..
Its crazy if we cant help each other, LASWA has to deal with the OLAOLUWA guy, e must not go unpunished. I thank Almighty Allah for sparing my life cos I was the only person with no bloody injury, I had dislocation on my right wrist, but its just a minor thing compare to what others faced.