The high rate of tanker accidents within the corridor of Otedola Bridge on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, with attendant loss of lives and property, is generating much concern among the general public, comprising residents, motorists , tanker drivers and government officials. DAYO AYEYEMI reports.
MOST Lagos’ residents and motorists spent their night on Otedola Bridge last Saturday due to no fault of theirs.
It was a tortuous night for them as petroleum-laden tanker collided with a truck carrying a container within the vicinity of the “dangerous” bridge on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, causing untold hardship to motorists and commuters.
The incident, which led to a fire outbreak, caused panic among motorists and passers-by as everyone scampered for safety. The situation eventually led to prolonged traffic jam on the expressway, outward and inward Lagos.
The incident, which occurred over the night, involved two tankers, a 40-feet container’s trailer and two cars. Although no casualty was recorded, it took prompt intervention of men of the Lagos State Fire Service and the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, to salvage a tanker with registration number KJA 662 YA, laden with 33,000 litres of diesel, after 10 hours of rescue operation.
This is not the first time such incident would occur on the expressway, but Otedola Bridge has been noted for frequent tanker accidents.
Even as normalcy has been restored to the location since last Sunday, Mr Bosun Aina and Kayode Oluyinka, both students, won’t let go of their harrowing experience on the expressway on that fateful day.
According to them, they had left Akure, where they had gone to write post UTME, to Lagos around 4p.m on Saturday, with the hope of getting to their homes in another four and half hours.
But to their surprise, the four-and-the-half hour journey turned 17 hours as they spent the night in the prolonged traffic jam on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
They said the gridlock was on both sides of the expressway due to the accident, which they later learnt was caused by a petroleum tanker that went up in flames on the popular Otedola Bridge.
Aina and Oluyinka narrated that both sides of the expressway were blocked from Ibafo in Ogun State by motorists, who drove one-way from Lagos.
Olayinka said if not that they were in a private car, they would have boarded a commercial motorbike from Ibafo.
According to the duo,they could not get home until 9a.m on Sunday.
They are not alone in this mess as most residents, motorists and commuters plying the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to workplaces or other parts of the state on daily basis now dread Otedola Bridge and its environs.
While someone may spend less than one-and half hours from Ibadan to Lagos, he or she may spend four hours between Ibafo in Ogun State and Ojota, Lagos in a gridlock induced by tanker accident.
Otedola Bridge, which is located between Lagos State Secretariat and Berger Bus Stop, is the most dreaded spot on the expressway, going by high rate of casualties as a result of frequent petroleum tanker accidents on the axis, coupled with damaged vehicles.
For some residents and passers-by, frequent occurrence of tanker accidents on the Otedola Bridge has to do with alleged poor design of the facility, while others linked high rate of carnage on the spot to a spiritual undertone.
“Incessant tanker accidents on this axis from Otedola Bridge to Kara Bridge is no longer ordinary. Some satanic forces are laying siege on the bridges to suck people’s blood,” one of the residents said.
According to Mr Olusola Aladenika, a resident in Mowe but working in Lagos, the rate at which truck and tanker accidents occur between Ojota and Mowe along the expressway was alarming.
He noted that hardly would any week go by without a tanker breakdown or involving an accident on the expressway.
Another resident in Ogba, Paul Odusanya, blamed reckless driving by the tanker drivers as a major cause of accidents and prolonged traffic jam on Lagos’ routes.
He narrated how he spent a whole night on the Otedola Bridge in February 2020 owing to a petrol tanker explosion.
A motorist, who did not want his name in print, said he lost his Toyota Camry car in a tanker explosion on Otedola Bridge in 2018.
A report from the Lagos State Government says that more than 3,000 tanker drivers besiege Lagos State daily to get imported fuel and consequently cause accident and gridlock in different parts of the state.
Responding to issue, the Federal Controller of Works in Lagos State, Mr. Kayode Popoola, told Nigerian Tribune that the bridge was properly designed contrary to people’s opinion.
According to him, the major cause of frequent tanker accidents on the route was due to overloading of tankers or trucks from their base. He pointed out that some tankers with the capacity to carry 30,000 liters of petroleum were overloaded with 60,000 liters of fuel.
“There is no design error on the bridge. Tankers or trucks that have capacity to carry 30,000 litres carry 60,000 litres. Overloading of the tankers is the major cause of accidents on the spot,” he said.
To halt the trend, he appealed to tanker drivers to ensure that they don’t carry more than their capacity from the loading points.
Raising concern about incessant tanker accidents and associated gridlock, the Lagos State Commissioner for Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Relations, Tayo Bamgbose-Martins, disclosed that no fewer than 300 fuel tanker accidents were recorded in the state in 2020.
He added that between December 2020 and now, LASEMA had responded to 114 major emergencies, saving lives and billions of naira worth of properties. He disclosed this during the Road Traffic Accident Simulation exercise, staged at Cappa, Oshodi by the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) recently.
Statistics from the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) also stated that Nigeria lost $9.8 billion to tanker accidents in 2018.
While warning drivers against over speeding, phoning while driving, overloading and driving after drinking, a FRSC report stated that there was slight improvement in the truck accidents recorded in 2018 when compared to 2017 and 2016.
“Number of truck crashes in 2016, 2017 and 2018 was 282, 240 and 196 respectively. Lives lost to accidents cannot be measured in monetary terms,” report from the FRSC read. In 2019, the report said that 199 accidents were recorded with economic value worth N9.6 billion invoking cost of other vehicles.
In June 27, 2018, an explosion of a petroleum filled tanker engulfed other vehicles after Otedola Bridge on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, killing 12 people, while 54 vehicles were burnt, apart from damaging the road asphalt pavement.
Also in January 8, 2019, a petrol tanker spilled content on the expressway causing accidents.
In May 21, 2020, a tanker loaded with petroleum rammed into a bus and a car on Otedola Bridge, killing one person, with several others injured.
On June 21 ,2020, there was a multiple accident involving three tankers, leading to fire incidence on Kara Bridge. Two people died during the incident.
On November 7, 2020, a similar explosion occurred on the highway at Kara Bridge killing two persons while about 20 vehicles were consumed in the inferno. A car dealer, Mr. Adekunle Adeyemo, who had operated for more than eight years along the corridor, lost 14 cars to the incident.
On October 17, 2020, an oil tanker, carrying 33,000 liters of PMS exploded on the popular Otedola Bridge, Lagos, causing serious traffic jam
Also by December 19, 2020, a diesel tanker exploded on Otedola Bridge and caused prolonged gridlock.
Worried by incessant accidents involving their members, Petroleum Tanker Drivers branch of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), has threatened to withdraw its services if installation of safety valve is not made mandatory in all petroleum trucks with effect from May 1, 2021 by the Federal Government to prevent fire accident and protect inflammable contents of the trucks from spilling over in a situation of road mishaps.
This is one of the resolutions the association arrived at during its executive meeting held in Mahattan Hall, Jericho, Ibadan in Oyo State, last Saturday.
In a communique signed by its chairman, Comrade Salmon Akanni Oladiti and made available to Nigerian Tribune on Sunday, the executive council lamented increasing rate of fire incidences involving petroleum trucks with accompanying massive destruction of lives and properties of members and general public.
The council blamed the lackluster attitude of government towards enforcement of compulsory installation of safety valves in all petroleum trucks. It, however, resolved to direct all members to withdraw their services if installation of safety valves is not made mandatory in all petroleum trucks with effect from May 1, 2021.
Its communiqué read in part: “The council in session noted with deep concerns the government’s dillydallying attitude towards the enforcement of the compulsory installation of safety valves in all petroleum trucks to protect the inflammable contents of these trucks from spilling over in a situation of road mishaps.
“The council in session expressed disappointment over the failure of the Federal Government to live up to its various commitments with various stakeholders in several meetings called by the government on the same matter.”
Noting that the fire accidents are becoming too many but definitely avoidable, the council warned that insensitive government officials and unscrupulous businessmen would no longer be allowed to keep destroying the lives of members and the innocent general public.
“It is in the well informed opinion of the council in session that these safety valves if installed will go a long way in reducing the rate of fire accidents involving petroleum trucks and therefore save precious lives and properties.”
In a recent interview, Alhaji Abdullah inuwa Mohammed of the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), said the association had, on many occasions, enlightened tanker drivers on road safety culture.
He added that members with old trucks also had depots with which safety measures about driving are being taught.
Mohammed attributed indiscriminate parking by commercial buses on the expressway as one of the factors responsible for tanker’s accident. He called for holistic solutions towards reducing tanker accidents on highways.
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