Two unidentified men were burnt beyond recognition while
five others were severely injured when 10 trailers and tankers caught fire on
the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on Thursday.
Eyewitnesses said that the fire incident, which took place
a few kilometres to the Sagamu Interchange, occurred about midnight.
One of the eyewitnesses Mr. Adamu Issa, told our
correspondent that he heard the sound of a collision where he was sleeping
beside Danko Filling Station.
“When we rushed there, we discovered that the trailers
parked on the road had started burning. Nobody could go near them because there
were loaded tankers there too,” Issa said.
Another eyewitness, who identified himself simply as
Ibrahim, said the accident happened when a trailer carrying some irons rammed
into one of the tankers parked on the side of the road.
“The loaded tankers exploded after the impact,” Ibrahim
said.
The owner of one of the burnt trailers said his vehicle
was not carrying goods when the incident occurred.
“Do you know how much I bought this trailer? Even if
it is not loaded, I have lost something very valuable. I don’t think I can say
much now,” he said.
Fire was still raging on one of the tankers about 10am
when our correspondent visited the scene on Thursday.
Gridlock stretching over several kilometres crippled
vehicular activities on the expressway as the burning vehicles blocked the
Ibadan-bound lane of the highway.
Men of the Ogun State sector of the Federal Road Safety
Corps, officials of Bi-Courtney Highway Services as well as police and Civil
Defence Corps officials were at the scene controlling traffic, while
firefighters were battling to put out the fire.
The Sector Commander of the FRSC, Mr. Ayobami Omiyale, who
was at the scene, said his findings showed that the accident was caused by a
trailer carrying irons.
Omiyale said, “The trailer was said to be heading for
Ibadan but when it got to the front of Danko Filling Station, it tried to
manoeuvre between the trailers and tankers parked on both sides of the road.
“In the process, one of the metals fell on one of the
tankers and ruptured it. Fuel from the tanker caught fire and began to spread
to other trailers.
“One of the trailers in the vicinity was even in motion.
It could not reverse because of other vehicles behind it. The driver was said
to have alighted and ran away. We also got report that the driver of the
trailer conveying the metals ran away.”
The FRSC boss said the men who died in the fire were
likely to be boys who slept in the vehicles.
“The fire service ran out of water in the night and had to
leave to reload. Unfortunately, there was another tanker fire at Sagamu, which
the firefighers diverted to, they came back this morning,” he said.
Omiyale said the charred remains of the victims had been
deposited at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital mortuary, while
those injured were also taken to the hospital.
While our correspondent was still at the scene, one of the
already burnt tankers suddenly exploded and a large fire started.
Omiyale said the tanker was compartmentalised, adding that
the first fire came from one of the compartments of the tanker.
Meanwhile, the concessionaire of the Lagos-Ibadan
Expressway, Bi-Courtney Highway Services Limited, noted that it had always
complained that trailers parking on the roadside were hazardous.
It said it had created eight temporary trailer parks along
the expressway to take heavy trucks off the road shoulders, but drivers still
park carelessly along the road.
This was contained in a statement by the company’s Head of
Communications, Mr. Dipo Kehinde, on Thursday.