No fewer than three persons have escaped death in an accident involving four vehicles in the Leme area of Abeokuta South Local Government in Ogun State late Wednesday.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the tanker, which was trying to enter the premises of a fuel station, Sunny Yinka Oil and Gas, where it was to deliver its content, was hit by a truck coming behind, causing it to fall, resulting in its content spilling on the road.
It was also gathered that the impact of the collision forced the head of the tanker to be removed, which resulted in another collision with a Toyota Tundra vehicle that was buying fuel in the station, thereby damaging its trunk.
An eyewitness, who identified simply as Aramide, told our correspondent that the speeding truck did not take caution to observe the tanker making its way into the premises of the fuel station, which led to the collision.
She said, “What I saw was that the truck did not take note of the fuel tanker because it was speeding and collided with the tanker which forced it to fall. Immediately the tanker fell, the head where the driver sits removed and hit the Toyota vehicle that is buying fuel in the filling station.”
At the scene of the crash, PUNCH Metro observed that many residents were taking advantage of the situation to scoop diesel as it was spilling on the road.
Some other persons suspected to be the staff of the fuel station were seen trans-loading the remainder content into the Underground Storage Tank in the fuel station, while some of the residents were seen fighting themselves over the content.
When our correspondent approached one of the residents scooping the spilt content to ask if they were not afraid of fire outbreak, he dismissed the possibility of a fire outbreak, saying, ‘this is diesel, it can not catch fire’.
Emergency responders were present at the scene to monitor the situation. They include officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency, Nigeria Police Force and Ogun State Fire Service team.
When contacted, the spokesperson for the Ogun Federal Road Safety Corps, Florence Okpe, confirmed the accident, blaming the cause of the accident on loss of control.
“I can confirm the accident that happened at Leme/Iyana Mortuary area. Three persons were involved (03M) but none was injured. The vehicles involved are Toyota Camry (LND33FZ), unregistered DAF truck and unregistered DAF tanker. The cause of the accident was loss of control,” Okpe said.
