Ifeoma Oraka. Inset: Dani
| credits:
| credits:
Lying in a critical condition in a ward of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos is 37-year-old Ifeoma Oraka, a widow and mother of one, whose legs were crushed by a drunken trailer driver, Tajudeen Dani, on April 12, 2013.
Oraka is lying in pain, praying to God to save her legs.
On Wednesday when our correspondent visited the injured woman at the female surgical trauma ward of LASUTH, she was surprisingly upbeat about her situation.
Apart from the fact that she was in serious pain, she betrayed no sign of the struggle and suffering she had been facing in her life even before she had the accident. Infact, one of her relations explained to our correspondent that the accident was the latest in a series of calamities.
Her legs were wrapped in heavy dressing when our correspondent visited Oraka.
Oraka told Saturday PUNCH she was about to board a bus at Second Rainbow Bus Stop along Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, Lagos on Friday, April 12, 2013 when she suddenly heard the sound of an impact.
The private cargo trailer was said to have crashed into three commercial vehicles during the accident.
She said, “At the instant that I heard the sound, I found myself on the ground. I had been knocked down.
“I didn’t fall unconscious, so, I knew what was going on around me immediately I was knocked down. I then realised that one of the tyres of the trailer had run over my legs. I had to be dragged out from under the trailer. I was screaming.”
Oraka’s injury was far worse than the description she gave about the incident.
When the trailer ran over her legs, it shredded most of the tissue on the left leg, leaving the right also badly damaged.
The bulky tissue at the back of her leg just below the knee was completely torn off up to the ankle. It was learnt that the doctors said the arteries and veins connecting her upper leg to the ankle were affected.
“I thank God that I did not die under that trailer. I never imagined this would ever happen to me. Anytime I see an accident scene, I was always concerned for the victims,” she said.
“Oraka had been managing to fend for her son and other dependants before the accident. She works so hard to pay her only child’s school fees. Her parents are dead,” a relation who is taking care of her in the hospital, told our Saturday PUNCH.
On Wednesday, our correspondent was at Orile Police Station, where a meeting held between the driver of the trailer and Oraka’s relations.
Also at the station were the drivers of two commercial buses aka danfo, which had been destroyed by the trailer.
There, Dani told his version of the incident, although he did not look remorseful.
Speaking in Yoruba, Dani said, “My brakes were intact. When I got to Second Rainbow Bus stop, one lane of the road had been blocked by commercial buses, which were picking passengers. One of them suddenly swerved into my lane and I hit it.
“You know trailers do not have brakes. So, the vehicle ran into other buses parked on the side of the road.”
Dani, who said he hails from Osun State, claimed that after the accident, he was helped out of the vehicle because he was trapped at the wheel.
The driver of the last bus affected by the impact said the passengers in his bus alighted swiftly when they saw the trailer hit the first bus.
“I quickly slid to the passenger’s side in front and jumped out just before the trailer hit my bus. It hit the side of my bus and the impact upturned my bus. The trailer rammed into it again and stopped,” he recounted.
But eyewitnesses said the trailer driver was drunk, adding that his eyes were blood shot.
“That boy was reeking of alcohol and Indian hemp at the time,” an eyewitness, who didn’t want to be named, told Saturday PUNCH.
Oraka said after the accident, she saw some people holding two men by their clothes to prevent them from running away. She, however, did not know which of the vehicles the men drove.But Dani denied being drunk at the time of the crash.
The officer who took charge of the meeting at Orile Police Division in Lagos, urged those concerned to settle the matter or he would take the matter to court.
“This meeting is not even supposed to take place here because this part does not really concern the police. But if you fail to settle, we will resort to taking the matter to the court so you all can settle it there,” he said.
The leaders of the Ifesowopo Truck Owners’ Association accompanied Dani to the police station.
The police said the trailer had been parked in the premises of the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency.
But Oraka is lying in the hospital at the moment and the rising medical bills are a source of worry to her and her family members.
But the woman said she had no idea what the future holds for her, adding that she just wants to get off the hospital bed.
But that may not be for many months.
No comments:
Post a Comment