Scores escape death after petrol tanker accident

Scores of persons miraculously escaped being burnt to death along the LASU-Igando road, in Lagos yesterday when a truck carrying 33,000 liters of Petrol Metric Spirit (PMS) popularly called petrol overturned, with its content spilled on the road and drainage.

It was gathered that the tanker driver lost control of the truck as a result of brake failure and rammed into two vehicles at Obadore bus-stop. The truck was partially burnt, while a Toyota Hilux and another vehicle were damaged beyond repairs.

The accident, which occurred just few metres away from the bridge at Obadore caused heavy traffic snarl on both sides of the road. Two persons who were in the trapped vehicles suffered serious injuries and were taken to the Igando General hospital.

An eyewitness said the truck had gone to load fuel at the NNPC depot at Ejigbo and was heading to a petrol station when the incident occurred. Motorists frantically made U-Turns for fear of an explosion.

“Some motorists even abandoned their vehicles and ran away from the scene, leading to commotion around Akesan area when policemen from Igando who thought that people were fleeing from armed robber mounted a roadblock,” the eyewitness said.

It was reliably gathered many others who live close to the scene of incident were trapped in their houses. Rescue operatives from the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), policemen, Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC), Rapid Response Squad (RRS) and officials of the state fire service quickly mobilized to the area.

Despite the inherent danger posed by the spill, several street urchins also known as ‘area boys’ were sighted scooping fuel into 50-litre jerry cans.

The Public Relations Officer of LASEMA, Kehinde Adebayo, who confirmed the incident, however said nobody died in the accident.“The agency received a distress call of a multiple accident involving a tanker which spilled its content. Upon arrival at the incident scene, it was observed that a tanker conveying PMS belonging to Heyden petroleum 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,” he said.