The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Ogun State Command, has attributed the crash involving a former world heavyweight boxing champion, Anthony Joshua, to overspeeding and wrongful overtaking.
Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief programme on Wednesday, the Ogun State Public Relations Officer of the FRSC, Afolabi Oyewole, said the driver involved in the accident was driving at a very high speed before wrongly overtaking and crashing into a stationary truck parked on the extreme shoulder of the road.
“We do speak about overspeeding and wrongful overtaking. Human factors will come into play every time there is a crash,” Oyewole said. “
What happened yesterday was that the driver who was involved in that ghastly accident involving Anthony Joshua was on a very high speed. He wrongfully overtook and hit a stationed vehicle that was parked at the extreme shoulder of the road.”
According to him, the impact made it impossible for occupants of the vehicle to escape unhurt, adding that it was only fortunate that the point of impact was on the right-hand side.
“There was no way he could have saved every other person in that vehicle, but fortunately enough, the side that had impact on the vehicle was the right-hand side that he wrongfully overtook and hit the truck,” he said.
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Oyewole confirmed that Anthony Joshua and the driver survived the crash and were immediately taken away by Department of State Services (DSS) operatives attached to the boxer to an undisclosed hospital.
“The driver and Anthony Joshua are hale and hearty. They were taken away by the DSS attached to him to an undisclosed hospital, but from what we heard, they are responding to treatment,” he stated.
He also disclosed that two victims lost their lives in the accident, noting that their bodies have been deposited at the morgue for identification by their families.
“The two bodies of the victims have been taken to the morgue for later identification for the families to do the needful,” Oyewole said.
The FRSC spokesman revealed that the Ogun State Sector Commander and patrol teams had intensified enforcement activities in December, particularly against overspeeding, with the introduction of laser speed guns.
“One new thing we did differently was to put into effect the use of the laser gun that could pick overspeeding vehicles from a distance,” he said.
Oyewole stressed that most fatal crashes are linked to overspeeding, which often results in loss of control and deadly consequences.
Joshua was involved in the tragic road accident along the busy Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, within the Makun axis of Ogun State.
Following the accident, President Bola Tinubu and the Lagos and Ogun State governments expressed profound condolences to the families, friends, and associates of the victims of a tragic road accident.
