Oil tanker explodes, kills 9, burns 54 vehicles in Lagos

Many people were feared dead yesterday while 54 vehicles were gutted by fire when a petrol-laden tanker crashed along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. The incident happened around 5 pm on the Otedola Bridge of the expressway with many motorists trapped, as the tanker which was leaving Lagos lost control and subsequently crashed and spilled its 33,000-litre content. This immediately triggered explosion, leaving many vehicles in flames. While some occupants of the vehicles escaped, others were caught up in the explosion. According to a report by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), which was made available to the press, the accident involved one tanker, five buses, two trucks, one tricycle and 45 cars. The Sector Commander of the FRSC, Hyginus Omeje and LASEMA General Manager, Mr. Adesina Tiamiyu confirmed that nine people died while four people were injured with various degrees of burns.  “The situation now is that we are on recovery. The wreckages are being taken off the road. All the dead bodies have been deposited in the morgue. The injured ones have been taken to Ojota Emergency Centre. So the rescue operation is still ongoing and all the emergency responders are here”. However, many said the casualty figure may be higher. Eyewitnesses alleged that the number of those who died in the inferno might be higher than 20 and those injured could be as high as 50 going by the number of vehicles involved. Emeka Ogwu, an eyewitness, said he was on his way home when the incident started. He said “There was a huge fire after the loud explosion. People were running in all directions to avoid the area but some were trapped in their vehicles. In the confusion, some of them could not escape because they had their seat belt on and the doors of their vehicles were locked.” Another witness, who said he drove a towing van at Ojodu Berger, Taiye Kazeem, told Daily Trust that the driver of the tanker might have lost control as he was descending the Otedola bridge and rammed into the road median before falling over and spilling the content of the tanker in the process.  The development also caused massive traffic gridlock in and out of Lagos State even as many vehicles going inward Lagos had to make a detour to avoid being trapped in the gridlock.