Eleven persons have been confirmed dead in an accident involving a fuel tanker along the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway on Saturday.
Enugu State governor, Dr Peter Mbah, has expressed sadness over the accident.
The governor, who was at the scene of the accident for an on-the-spot assessment, said the government had already swung into action to ensure that the injured victims received full medical attention, while also taking steps to forestall future occurrences, including enforcement of road traffic rules and fixing the bad portion of of the federal road.
Describing the accident as unfortunate, Mbah commiserated with the families of the victims.
He further directed the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Sector Commander in Enugu State, Mr Franklin Agbakoba, and the State’s Commissioner for Transportation, Mr Obi Ozor, to ensure that all tankers conveying inflammable substances in the state have anti-spill lock that will prevent spill in case of accident.
“This is an accident involving a tanker that preliminary investigation shows may have had a break failure, fell down, had its product, premium motor spirit, spilled from the tank and ignited. So, this is for us a tragedy where we have some casualties.
“But as I said, investigation is still at preliminary stages. The police and other law enforcement agencies are on it. We want to get to the root of this for us to understand the true cause of the accident.
“In the meantime, we have moved those that are in need of treatment to the hospitals for full medical attention. My Commissioner for Health and also my Special Adviser on Health, the Chief Medical Director of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology Teaching Hospital (ESUTTH), Parklane, Enugu, the police, and Federal Road Safety Corps are all involved. They have my instruction to ensure that maximum medical attentions were given to the survivors,” the governor stated.
Continuing, he stated, “But we’re also taking quick measures as a government. I have just been speaking with the head of the Federal Road Safety Corps to make sure they enforce the rules that prohibit tanker drivers from the road without an anti-spill lock. Tankers conveying premium motor spirit and inflammable products must have an anti-spill lock to ensure that when these trucks fall down, they do not spill. It is very important.
“Also, for us as a government, we are going to be looking at how we can deploy some traffic rules to ensure that we do not have a reoccurrence of this.
“We are obviously not going to wait for the federal government to fix the other section of the road. We, as government, are going to take steps to ensure that whatever needs to be done on that section of the federal road is done immediately, so we would never want a reoccurrence of this.”
While briefing the governor on some of the preliminary investigations conducted, the FRSC Sector Commander explained that the tanker accident was a result of a brake failure by the fuel tanker.
He added that 11 people lost their lives at the scene, while identified injured road users were rushed to the hospital for treatment and thanked the governor for showing leadership by rushing to the scene and equally undertaking to foot the medical bills of the injured victims.
