A total of 11 vehicles were on Wednesday in Ibadan burnt following a ghastly auto-accident in front of the NNPC Mega Station on the Iwo-Ojoo highway in Ibadan.
Speaking on the incident which occurred at about 2:30 a.m, the NNPC Station Manager, Mr Victor Bello, said a truck with Lagos registration number XQ 717 GGE carrying coal coming from Ojoo crossed lanes and hit an NNPC truck attempting to park.
“The NNPC truck upon impact lost control and hit another NNPC truck that was fully loaded with petrol. The petrol spilled on the road and immediately led to an inferno.
“That was how fire started spreading from one vehicle to the other, affecting seven of them. It also caught up with a truck that was fully loaded with diesel, affecting a total of four tankers,'' Bello said.
He lamented that officials of the Oyo State Fire Service did not turn up until about 3a.m when they eventually put out the fire, adding that there was no casualty.
But the Oyo State FRSC Sector Commander, Godwin Ogagaoghene, said that the driver of the truck carrying coal had fallen asleep behind the wheels.
“He fell asleep due to fatigue; he was coming toward Iwo road bypass when his vehicle which was descending a slope lost control and ran off lane, hitting a billboard and fell.
“Subsequently, he was hit by an oncoming truck loaded with petrol, and the leaked fuel sparked off the fire.
“The damage would not have been hazardous but for the indiscriminate parking of the other vehicles involved.
“The vehicles were parked by the side of the road in front of the NNPC filling station,” Ogagaoghene said.
The Commander said men of his command had since arrested the situation by controlling traffic and towing away the burnt tankers and vehicles blocking the highway.
When our correspondent visited the scene, thousands of sympathisers were sighted discussing the incident.
The three other tankers were marked Lagos XU 39 KRD, Lagos XQ 647 MUS and? Lagos XU 115 KSF.
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