9th March, 2024
By Oluwapelumi Oluwayemi
Nollywood star Nkechi Blessing has urged the Lagos State government to implement safety measures on the recently renovated Third Mainland Bridge to prevent accidents and fatalities.
Her appeal comes in the wake of the tragic death of Akintoye Benson, an aide to the chairman of the Lagos Chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), MC Oluomo, who reportedly lost his life in a car crash on the bridge on Thursday, March 7, 2024.
In a video on social media, Blessing expressed concern over the lack of safety provisions on the bridge, which is currently undergoing reconstruction by the Federal Ministry of Works.
While acknowledging the improvements made to the bridge, she shared the risks posed by excessive speeding, citing recent accidents as evidence.
“Dear Lagos Government, we appreciate the fact and the need for reconstructing the Third Mainland Bridge.
“If I hadn’t driven on that bridge and I had this experience, I won’t relate with all the comments I have been seeing on each blogs that have posted about Toye’s death regarding the Third Mainland Bridge.
“Now, this is what I feel should be done. I don’t know if it’s in the works. But if it’s not, I beg you people, please just put a speed camera. Once you overspeed, the camera catches your full plate number and you’d pay for over-speeding. Speed-limit camera and also install all those 50, 40, 30, 10, speed limit signs.”
Blessing proposed the installation of speed cameras and speed limit signs as practical solutions to curb speeding and enhance safety for motorists.
“Start with this your new Third Mainland Bridge because there was an accident on this same Third Mainland Bridge last week.
“And just yesterday night, it was one of the Lagos State workers. He’s part of the NURTW, at least it was a Lagos State person that died last night on this same bridge”.