The Lagos State Traffic Management Authority confirmed on Tuesday, 15 September 2026, that a 40-foot container truck suffered brake failure and struck demarcation blocks and other vehicles at the exit of Kara Bridge on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The agency posted the alert on its official X account and said recovery work had begun as a queue built back to New Garage.
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LASTMA’s first notice read: “A 40ft container laden truck reportedly had a brake failure and rammed into the demarcation blocks and other vehicles at the exit of Kara Bridge.” A follow-up said recovery and evacuation were under way and that the backlog already reached New Garage.
The same briefing recorded a second crash on Kara Bridge inward Mowe, where a loaded trailer collided with a sports utility vehicle. Officers of the agency and police personnel were deployed to both scenes.
“Officers and police personnel are on the ground doing the needful,” LASTMA said. Motorists were asked to wait while crews tried to reopen the carriageway. “We implore motorists to be patient as all hands are on deck to ensure all impediments are cleared off the road.”
No official casualty figure was attached to Tuesday’s two notices. That absence matters.
Kara Bridge has seen far graver days this year, including multi-truck wrecks in July and later pile-ups in which LASTMA and other agencies reported deaths. Tuesday’s account, as published, is an obstruction and traffic story unless a later hospital or police update says otherwise.
The timing is severe because the bridge is already narrowed. The Federal Ministry of Works began a two-week repair of damaged expansion joints on 8 September, with the job scheduled through 22 September under direction from the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi. Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation Oluwaseun Osiyemi had warned that only half the affected section would stay open at a time.
Since then commuters have reported journeys of four to six hours, queues spilling toward Berger, Ojota and the Secretariat, and higher bus fares. Rain has also interrupted concrete work.
Acting Controller of Works in Ogun State Richard Adeleye has insisted the first side of the joint repair is largely done and that the hardship is the price of stopping further structural failure. “Who is saying the pace of work is slow? We are almost done with one side,” he said last week.
Heavy trucks remain the recurring hazard on this corridor. LASTMA and sister agencies have spent 2026 lifting fallen 20-foot and 40-foot boxes off the same bridge, sometimes after chemical spills, sometimes after brake failure, sometimes after overload.
The pattern is familiar to anyone who uses the road: one articulated vehicle loses control, lanes vanish, and the Lagos-Ogun approach seizes.
For drivers already picking their way through the repair bottleneck, Tuesday’s LASTMA truck crash Kara Bridge report means another wait at New Garage and another plea for patience. The agency has not yet said when both wrecks will be fully cleared.
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Until that update comes, the expressway’s most fragile pinch point is again doing two jobs at once: hosting federal repairs and absorbing the wreckage of freight that should never have lost its brakes on a bridge.
Mariam Balogun is a contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, business, and public affairs.
