The mystery of the Lagos tanker tragedy on the Otedola Bridge, still haunts victims of the accident even as it draws once more, attention on challenges of disaster management in the country.
TEMITOPE MUSOWO writes
The Otedola bridge disaster in retrospect Many Lagosians will not forget in a hurry the gorey incident of Thursday June 28, 2018 on Otedola bridge, along Lagos Ibadan-Express Way.
It was indeed a dark Thursday when a fire accident caused by a petrol tanker led to the death of nine people on the spot, while over 50 cars were also burnt.
The Lagos State Government through the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris, at a news conference in Lagos subsequently confirmed 12 casualties in the incident.
According to the commissioner, 10 of the victims, including a minor, died at the scene of the accident, while two others died at the hospital.
‘’Seven people were taken with degrees of burns to our various hospitals.’’ The General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Authority (LASEMA), Mr Adesina Tiamiyu, also corroborated this while saying the state government had commissioned the ministry to conduct a DNA analysis of the remains of those burnt to death and a help desk had been opened to help counsel victim’s relations.
Tanker accident a recurring decimal in Lagos Incidents of container-laden trucks or other articulated vehicles causing accident and monumental loss is becoming a recurring decimal in Lagos, a place notorious for this unfortunate incident is Ojuelegba bridge, records of people losing their lives and property being destroyed on or underneath the Ojuelegba Bridge have increased over the years.
On Tuesday, June 19, 2018, barely one week before the Otedola bridge accident was another tragedy on the popular Ojuelegba Bridge, when a truck unleashed terror on the area, leaving in its wake death, injuries and agony.
The truck, which was heading towards the Fadeyi end of the bridge, reportedly lost control, emptying its heavy contents that included logs and plywood on innocent motorists and pedestrians.
Three people were killed instantly, with others sustaining varying degrees of injury.
On Wednesday morning of September 2015, on the same Ojuelegba bridge, similar incident claimed the life of one Sulaimon Abubakar, a businessman who operated a bureau de change.
His crushed body and that of his friends, Kamilu and Umar, were recovered from under the crushing weight of a fully-loaded 40-foot containerladen truck that fell off the bridge and landed on their black Toyota sports utility vehicle.
The incident also caused a stampede, as motorists plying the busy route abandoned their vehicles and fled for their lives.
Also in December 2015, at least four houses and vehicles were razed when a fuel tanker fell off the Ojuelegba Bridge, spilling its content and bursting into flames.
The tanker, which belonged to a major oil company, was reportedly ascending the bridge in the early hours of the morning when it lost control.
These are just few of the many disasters that articulated vehicles movement in Lagos have caused in recent time.
Legislation on preventing recurrence Although, after the Ojuelegba incident in 2015, Lagos State House of Assembly immediately came up with a law to regulate the movement of trailers and articulated vehicles in the state but the enforcement was only for a while the tragic story continues.
In reaction to the Otedola Bridge disaster, Hon Fatai Mojeed Adebola representing Ibaju -Lekki constituency I, the Chairman Lagos Assembly House Committee on Transport who spoke with Blueprint on the Assembly’s effort to prevent a reoccurrence of such incident said, “on that day I got a call from a friend who was going to Ibadan informing me about the incident, I immediately called all relevant agencies in the state who immediately mobilised to the scene to ensure the incident didn’t go beyond what we witnessed on that dark day We have been able to identify the two major factors responsible for the sad incident, firstly human error, and vehicular defect, that is why we said any vehicle that must ply Lagos road must obtain our road worthiness certificate, another thing I discover as the chairman of transport committee is that our MOT enforcement team need to be back on the road even as we are moving from a mega city to a smart city where all the system will be electronically monitored, I will still advise that we continue to monitor both electrically and manually, because an average Nigeria is not ready to comply until you force them, to prevent a reoccurrence of this we now mandate that all the trailers, the articulated vehicles must have comprehensive insurance so that they can be able to indemnify the affected property which the third party insurance does not cover’’.
Speaking further on the effort of the House, The lawmaker said, ‘’the house immediately passed a resolution that the state government should ensure a strict compliance to the existing law regulating movement of the articulated vehicles in Lagos, section 48 of the Lagos traffic law restricted articulate vehicles from moving but only petrol tankers and trailers that conveys people from one place to the other were exempted.
Now we are looking at that since these vehicles are equally causing problems on our roads we are about to review that law to include all of them.
It is said that the issue of restriction would cause congestion at the port and even lead to petroleum product scarcity, that is why it is part of our resolution that the executive should look for a park for them, before the ‘’Operation Restore Sanity on Lagos Road embarked on by Lagos Joint Task Force recently, if you go to Funsho Williams avenue down to Ojuelegba you will see the traffic gridlock being caused by these petrol tankers, the government will look for a garage for them where they will park and go in turn by turn to get loaded, this we would do in such a way that will not lead to scarcity of petroleum product,’’ Hon Mojeed explained.
Government’s effort The authority in the usual way of backing without action, while addressing journalists on the following Sunday after the Otedola bridge accident, the Lagos Commissioner for Transportation, Ladi Lawanson, said interim findings showed that the petrol tanker was carrying far above its appropriate weight.
“From this preliminary investigation, the truck should not have been loaded to the weight of 30 tonnes, which is twice its pulling capacity.” He announced restrictions on the movement of tankers within the city.
“As an immediate response to the latest incident, the Lagos State Government hereby announces the following measures: fuel tankers are hereby directed to ply the designated trailer route, that is, Apapa-Oworonshoki Expressway via Ogudu to Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
“All tankers and containers coming into Lagos State from henceforth are directed to obtain the Ministry of Transportation Certificate of Road Worthiness at any of or centres within the next 30 days, while new centres along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway will be established to quickly to cope with the expected demand for this service,” Lawanson said.
He also added that government, in partnership with all the stakeholders, would set up joint-enforcement of the operating laws, while barriers would be installed on bridges in Lagos to prevent articulated trucks including Ojuelegba, Mobolaji Bank Anthony, Ekodeso, Abule-Egba, Lekki-Ajah, among others.
Alternative arrangement Lawanson also disclosed that Lagos government was already exploring alternative modes of transportation of petroleum products, to separate passenger traffic from cargo movements.
Commenting on the incident, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) charged the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG), Petroleum Tanker Driver (PTD) section to engage its members in rigorous traffic trainings to avoid frequent accidents.
According to Mr Bisi Kazeem, Head of Public Education, FRSC, who spoke with journalists on the matter said that such training would minimise accidents involving tankers on the roads.
The FRSC boss said there was an urgent need for government and stakeholders’ consultation, and that government needed to initiate policy or legislation to curb their excesses on the road.
According to him, the new policy will regulate their operations and channel their movement to the rail network.
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 State’s Commissioner for Transportation, Mr Ladi Lawanson, said the decision became necessary following preliminary investigations into the incident which revealed a combination of vehicular defect and human errors.
He also said that government, in partnership with all the stakeholders, would set up joint-enforcement of the operating laws, while barriers would be installed on bridges in Lagos to prevent articulated trucks including Ojuelegba, Mobolaji Bank Anthony, Ekodeso, Abule-Egba, Lekki-Ajah, among others.
Problem of disaster management in Nigeria According to Dr Oluwasinaayomi Kasim ,a lecturer in the department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Ibadan, who spoke during an interview with blueprint, he x-rayed the problem with the agencies and the weakness of our disaster management in Nigeria.
‘’Let me start with Nigerians attitude to disaster management, in this part of the world we don’t anticipate a recurrence of disaster because we have short memory of disaster and we always think we can pray away disaster even when we have done nothing to prevent it.
In urban planning, disaster management is said to be coordination and integration of all activities necessary to build, sustain and improve the capability for disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.
But here we prefer response to preparedness, do you know why?, because in terms of preparation for disaster you will present your budget for approval before purchasing those equipment but in the case of response, since it is an emergency, you don’t seek approval for anything, you just mobilise to the scene immediately and come back to claim whatever cost you can prove you incurred.
In disaster management, especially in a congested city like Lagos, more effort should be concentrated on preparedness and prevention, we should envisage this and be proactive about it to preserve lives.
Lagos is trying in the area of security, but more needed to be done in the area of safety.
What is the level of our preparedness for emergency response, how timely do we respond, what are the channels of communication to report emergency to relevant agencies do we have, who are the people who man those desks, what is their attitudes to work.
All these are important in preparation for emergency.
Why can’t a city like Lagos have helicopter to respond to such situations.
