At least 70 people were burnt to death and many others injured in a multiple crash involving a loaded fuel tanker and eight vehicles in Nigeria’s South-eastern Anambra state, according to local press reports on Saturday.
The accident occurred at the Umunya junction, along the Enugu-Onitsha expressway, in the Oyi council area of the state, Friday when the tanker fell as the driver was negotiating a failed section of the road, spilling its inflammable content.
The resulting explosion and fire engulfed the vehicles behind the tanker, including a passenger car with three occupants, a van and six fully-packed passenger buses. All the occupants of the vehicles were burnt beyond recognition.
The 17 occupants of two other buses far behind jumped out of the vehicles and escaped unhurt as the raged and sympathisers could only weep in despair as they could not rescue the victims.
Many other injured passengers, whose number could not yet be determined, have been taken to the hospital for treatment.
Mr. B.N. Ekenna, the official of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) who oversaw the rescue efforts, told journalists that his men could not do much when they got to the scene of the accident as the victims had already been burnt beyond recognition.
He said the number of those who died could be higher than 70, which he said was a mere estimate.
‘Honestly we cannot estimate the number that had died but you can see that six commuter buses were full of complete passengers and only seventeen can be confirmed as those that escaped and you can see that the fire is still burning. So the num ber could be between 70 or more than that but we are still not sure until we complete the evacuation,’ Mr. Ekenna said, blaming the accident on bad road.
Anambra state police commissioner Philemon Leha said the police were in the process of removing the charred human remains and the burnt vehicles from the road.
Nigeria’s bad roads, which have been blamed for many accidents, attracted the attention of the federal government this week, when the decision-making federal executive council awarded billions of naira in contracts for the rehabilitation of the roads.
The FRSC estimates that over 4,000 people die in road accidents in Nigeria yearly, but observers said the number is far higher since many accidents, especially in remote areas of the vast country, go unreported.