Kano-Lagos train derails after hitting ‘abandoned’ truck on rail track

A Lagos bound train from Kano, on Monday, derailed after it collided with a stationary truck on the rail track, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.
Four passengers were injured in the accident which occurred at Bakin Kasuwa Village in Kaduna State.
“No lives were lost. The four people who were injured had been taken to the hospital by the FRSC,” David Ndakotsu, Assistant Director, Public Relations, Nigerian Railway Corporation, told PREMIUM TIMES on the phone.
“It was an abandoned truck on the track that caused the accident,” Mr. Ndakotsu added.
But a staff of the railway corporation who was aboard the train told PREMIUM TIMES that the truck was not stationary on the rail track.
“The truck suddenly drove onto the track and you know that when a train applies brake, it doesn’t stop immediately. So it hit and dragged the truck and then derailed,” said the staff who did not want to be named.
“Four coaches fell down, the track removed, and the locomotive moved out of the track,” he added.
Four directors – comprising of directors of Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Operations, and Safety – have left Lagos Monday evening en route Kaduna, according to Mr. Ndakotsu.
PREMIUM TIMES learnt that repairs on the train could last for over one week as some of the heavy equipment would have to be transported – by rail – to the scene of the accident.
The passengers have been advised to seek alternative means of getting to their destinations, according to the railway staff.
“Those that have small loads are free to go but those with heavy loads would have to ensure that their loads have been booked so that they can come to Iddo to collect them when the train returns,” he added.
Last month, passengers on the Kano-Lagos route were stranded in Minna, Niger State, after the derailment of a cargo train at Kutuwongi Village in Mokwa Local Government Area.