…spills petrol, crushes 2 vehicles
Scores of people yesterday escaped death along the LASU-Igando road, Lagos, when a truck carrying 33,000 litres of petrol overturned, crushing two vehicles and spilling its content on the road.
It was gathered that the tanker driver lost control of the vehicle as a result of brake failure and then rammed into the vehicles at the Obadore bus stop.
The truck was partially burnt, while the vehicles, a Toyota Hilux and a sport utility vehicle, were destroyed.
The accident, which occurred just a few metres away from the bridge at Obadore, caused heavy human and vehicular traffic on both sides of the road.
Two persons who were in the two trapped vehicles suffered serious injuries were taken to the Igando General Hospital.
An eye witness said the truck had gone to load petrol at the NNPC depot at Ejigbo and was heading to a filling station to discharge its content when the accident occurred.
The eyewitness, who identified himself simply as Lawal, added that petrol gushed out of the tanker and spread all over the highway and into the nearby drainage.
Commercial bus drivers and other road users made frantic u-turn in panic that the truck might explode.
Lawal said, “We quickly disseminated information to all motorists to abandon their vehicles and run away from the scene. All of a sudden, there was commotion around the Akesan area when policemen from the Igando police division who thought that people were fleeing from armed robbers mounted a road block.
“The tanker, loaded with petrol, ran over the road median, trapping two vehicles. This resulted into an outflow of petrol which spread all over the highway. We quickly blocked both sides of the road. This effort really assisted us from not recording any casualty because men of the Lagos State Fire Service and officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency were on ground to control any disaster, especially in the event of fire outbreak.”
Despite the inherent danger in the situation, many miscreants, known as area boys, were seen scooping fuel from the spillage into plastic jerry cans.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO), LASEMA, Kehinde Adebayo, confirmed to Eko Trust that nobody died in the accident.
Adebayo said, “The agency received a distress call of a multiple accident involving a tanker which spilled its content (PMS). Upon arrival at the incident scene, it was observed that a tanker conveying petrol belonging to Heyden Petroleum had collided with two pick- up trucks, which resulted to spillage of the tanker’s content.
“The affected vehicles had been recovered and evacuated off the road to a safe place by officials of the agency, Lagos State Fire Service, and LASTMA. The road is open for vehicular activities.”
