Fuel tanker mishaps: The carnage, tears and agony

Recently, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) confirmed nine persons dead and 53 vehicles burnt in the fuel tanker explosion in Lagos state, just as FRSC spokesperson, Bisi Kazeem, confirmed another five injured in a head-on collision between a fuel tanker and trailer on the Suleja-Minna highway.
KEHINDE OSASONA, in this report, revisits the incessant accidents involving fuel tankers and the misery on hapless Nigerians.
Background The frequent occurrences of fuel tanker explosions on Nigerian highways is becoming frightening by the day, Sadly, it has for the umpteenth time raised the question of an alternative routes for heavy loaders, trailers and lorries-alike which have continued to compete for rights of ways with small but vulnerable cars.
Lately, deaths occasioned by fuel tankers and their likes on the nation’s highways have hurled many motorists and multitude into untimely death thus throwing their families into perpetual agony with no hope in sight as to when the carnage will stop.
FRSC statistics and stakeholders’ stance Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps, Boboye Oyeyemi, had in 2016 during the flag-off of the Special End of Year 2016 Patrol in Makurdi, the Benue state capital, lamented that losses from tanker crashes had been estimated to cause the nation about N7 billion annually.
According to him, in 2016 alone, petroleum tanker accidents killed 306 Nigerians in road accidents involving 338 fuel tankers and 692 vehicles across the country.
He, therefore, reiterated the need for more campaign against carnage on the nation’s roads, which for him required the support and collaboration of all stakeholders.
At the event, the state chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Comrade John Shom, attributed the frequent accidents on Nigerian road to the dilapidated state of many of the roads, cautioning nonetheless the activities of the Road Safety Corps mobile court, In his remarks, the Commandant, Nigeria Navy Provost and Regulating School, Commodore Suleiman Bello, appealed to road users to adopt the strategy of sailors “by having it at the back of their minds that any driver involved in a crash is liable even if the driver of the other ill-fated car caused the accident.” “When this strategy is adopted our roads will be safer because all drivers will drive with care just like sailors do,” he said.
Linking past carnage with the present In 2015, a fuel tanker conveying 33,000 litres of petrol exploded at Iyana-Ipaja, in Lagos state, and injured no fewer than 14 persons, gutting 21 vehicles and razing 44 shops.
The incident also completely burnt down five buildings and six tricycles, despite effort by officials of the Lagos State Fire Service and Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) response to the distress call.
The tanker driver, Blueprint Weekend recalls, had reportedly lost control of the vehicle due to fatigue which made the tanker swerved roadside and fell just a few metres away from the middle of the bridge, thus leading to the spill of its content and outbreak of fire that gutted buildings and vehicles within the vicinity.
Not long after, similar occurrence was reported at Idimu, also in Lagos.
The petrol tanker fire incident which also destroyed property worth millions of naira and consumed 34 buildings, 70 shops, one tricycle and one truck was ignited by a fallen petrol-laden tanker.
Also, in 2016, a former Chief Fire Officer, Nwanovim George, confirmed that six fuel tanker accidents occurred in one month alone in the state.
He noted that tanker drivers’ carelessness was the main cause of most of the accidents on the highways.
“We recorded 115 tanker accidents in Lagos alone in 2016 while we have six tanker accidents this January alone.
We are using this forum to advise our drivers to be careful on the road and to always make use their fire extinguishers anytime there is fire,” he said.
Furthermore, related incidents had been recorded in Badagry, where the driver of a tanker conveying 33,000 litres of diesel was contesting the road with a tipper and in Ejigbo where fire razed a building.
Similar occurrence at Festac Link Bridge in 2017, left in its wake 21 vehicles and five motorcycles which got burnt in the resultant inferno.
A man, identified simply as Ifeanyi, who attempted to contain the spread of the fire before the arrival of fire service men, escaped death by the whiskers, while motorists and passers-by sustained minor injuries in the ensuing skirmish.
It was learnt that the fuel tanker laden with petrol fell caught fire while ascending the bridge thereby spilling its contents in the process, a situation which prompted other vehicles behind it to stop abruptly.
Eight years after the August 2010 tanker explosion at the Otedola Bridge that claimed 15 persons, an infant, with 18 others inflicted with varying degrees of injury and 20 cars burnt beyond repairs,similar tanker explosion at the same spot had killed no fewer than nine persons and burnt 54 vehicles; including a tricycle.
Just when that was yet to simmer, report filtered in from Suleja the spokesperson of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Mr.
Bisi Kazeem, confirmed the Minna-Suleja crash.
Kazeem confirmed that five persons was injured in the early morning headon collision between a fuel tanker and trailer, saying that the victims have been taken to the hospital.
He said: “The cause of the crash was speed violation, leading to loss of control and the vehicles caught fire after a head-on collision, but no life was lost.
The tanker, which belong to Conoli had no visible number plate and was laden with Kerosene, a highly flammable hydrocarbon liquid.
“Victims have been taken to the General Hospital, Suleja, as they were attended to by FRSC officials and other security agents such as men of the Nigerian Police Force and Fire.” Gales of rhetoric Meanwhile, the Lagos state has held a preliminary meeting where it reached five resolutions.
According to a statement, trailers, articulated trucks, long vehicles and tankers will no longer be allowed to roam the Lagos metropolis like other regular cars.
Also, it resolved that it was “now mandatory for all articulated trucks coming into Lagos to obtain the transportation ministry’s ‘road worthiness certificate’ at any of the designated centres within the next 30 days.” Addressing a joint press briefing at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre in Alausa, after meeting with all the relevant stakeholders including Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD), National Association of Transport Operators (NATO), Container Truck Owners Association of Nigeria, among others, the Commissioner for Transportation, Ladi Lawanson, said the decision became necessary following preliminary investigations into the incident which revealed a combination of vehicular defect and human errors.
Lawanson disclosed further that the state government was already exploring alternative modes of transportation of petroleum products to separate passenger traffic from cargo movements within the metropolis in the interest of the public safety and order.
He said: “The Lagos state government has restricted movement of fuel tankers to designated trailer routes going forward.
The government, in partnership with all the stakeholders, would set up jointenforcement of the operating laws, while barriers would be installed on bridges in Lagos to prevent articulated trucks.
The bridges were given as Ojuelegba, Mobolaji Bank Anthony, Ekodeso, AbuleEgba, Lekki-Ajah, among others.” Curbing the accidents Proffering solutions, stakeholders are of the view that regular sensitisation for the truck operators, tanker drivers and motorists- alike would go a long way in checkmating the menace.
They hinge perpetual safety measure on strict enforcement of roads regulations.