Two persons sustained varying degrees of injuries, while six vehicles were burnt when a petrol-laden truck exploded on Wednesday afternoon along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway in Ogun State.
The explosion, which occurred at the NASFAT turning point on the expressway, was caused as a result of the petrol-laden tanker, which overturned at the axis and spilled its content, thereby resulting in a heavy traffic congestion in the area.
As part of the efforts to mitigate large-scale disaster, law enforcement agents, which included men of the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE), those of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and the Police, raced to the scene and diverted vehicular movement completely away from the expressway.
An eyewitness told LEADERSHIP that the spilled content from the fallen petrol tanker later caught fire, which resulted in the explosion that injured the two male victims and burned six vehicles.
Confirming the incident, the Public Education Officer of Ogun State Sector Command of FRSC, Florence Okpe, said only six vehicles who could not make “a quick U-turn” were burnt in the incident, but no life was lost.
Meanwhile, the TRACE’s Public Relations Officer, Babatunde Akinbiyi, explained that two male adults sustained burns, while six vehicles, which included four trucks, a commercial bus and one Toyota Camry car were razed by the explosion.
Emphasising that the explosion affected both sides of the expressway, Akinbiyi also explained that the two victims were first attended to by the emergency team of the Ogun State Accident and Emergency Services (OGSAES) before they were later evacuated to the Olabisi Onabanjo Teaching Hospital (OOUTH) in Sagamu.
As at the time of filing this report, both FRSC’s spokesperson Okpe and the TRACE’s PRO Akinbiyi explained that fire fighters were still battling to extinguish the fire at the scene of the explosion.
