Accident claims three lives, 39 vehicles

Lagos tanker explosion  | credits: File

Two members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers and another unidentified person died about midnight on Saturday when a petroleum truck exploded at Mile Two, near Festac Town, in Lagos.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the fire, which followed the explosion, injured many people and burnt 39 vehicles, including commercial buses.

The spokesman for the Lagos State Police Command, Jaiyeoba Joseph, who confirmed the incident, said the driver of the truck with registration No. XB 370 ATN, was, however, at large.

The Mile Two branch Treasurer of the NURTW, Mr. Kazeem Orilowo, who witnessed the incident, told NAN that their office was destroyed in the inferno which lasted for about seven hours.

Lagos tanker explosion

 

He said that the incident occurred when the driver of the truck, which was petrol laden, lost control while descending on one of the loops of the Mile Two bridge and exploded by the motor park.

Orilowo said the vehicles destroyed were for inter-state and intra-city transportation.

Also the Vice-Chairman of the Amuwo-Odofin NURTW, Mr. Ajele Abayomi, told SUNDAY PUNCH that two of the deceased, Taworidi Alade, Sulmonu Azeez, were their members.

“We could not identify the third person. When we searched the truck that caused the inferno, we saw three number plates but the driver has absconded,” he said.

It was gathered that 10 transport companies in the areas lost vehicles to the inferno.

A driver with one of the transport companies, Jil Motors, Mr Austin Iziren, told NAN that they lost a bus, while the fire consumed all his personal belongings.

Also, a manager with Ufuoma Motors, Mr. Fred Obroh, said they lost two buses in the fire.

In a related development Yobe State Governor, Ibrahim Gaidam, has directed the immediate review of activities of the state’s mass transit company, ‘Yobe Line.’ following an accident involving two of its buses which claimed 32 lives.

In a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the governor on media and information, Abdullahi Bego on Saturday, it said the “governor took that measure ‘with a view to ensuring that accidents such as the one that claimed several lives are prevented in future.”

The two buses belonging to Yobe line had on Thursday collided with each other near Azare, along the Kano-Maiduguri road, claiming 32 livess

Bego said the governor also called on commercial drivers to observe traffic regulations while plying major roads.