No fewer than 20 people were on Sunday burnt to death in Aiyetoro village along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway in a ghastly road accident involving a petrol tanker, three commercial vehicles and four private cars.
According to a witness who spoke with THISDAY, the petrol tanker travelling from Lagos to Ibadan lost control, fell over and caught fire.
The spilling of the fuel was said to have burnt all the vehicles behind it.
This accident has made the road impassable, having resulted in heavy traffic that made motorists to divert to Ikorodu to later link up with the expressway.
A top official of the Federal Road Safety Commission [FRSC], Ogun State, said seven people were burnt to death, but THISDAY learnt from an eyewitness, an artisan in the area, that about 20 people lost their lives.
Another eyewitness, John Agbabiaka, stated that the accident happened on Sunday night, thereby making it difficult for rescuers to come to the aid of the victims.
�We just heard loud crashes and the wailing of some people, but nobody could come our because it was still raining, moreso it was in the night,� he said.
Confirming the accident to newsmen, the Sector Commander of the Ogun State FRSC, Mr. Olu Mike Olagunju, said rescue work was still going on, adding, �The accident must have happened yesterday [Sunday]. You recall there was a little rain, but a petrol tanker fully loaded with PMS otherwise known as petrol spilled its content and it caught fire alongside three commercial buses and four cars.�
Olagunju said his men had so far recovered seven burnt bodies, adding: �We wouldn�t know the number of survivors because rescue work is still ongoing.�
He advised motorists to always shun night journey. �Motorists should be very careful. They should observe road signals and avoid night journeys,� he said.
Policemen from the Ogun State Police Command and men of the state Fire Service were also at the scene yesterday battling to put out the fire and probably recover some corpses.
When THISDAY visited the morgue at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital in Sagamu, yesterday, there were corpses burnt beyond recognition.
However, the Public Education Officer (PEO) of Ogun State FRSC, Mr. Oluwashola Oluwole, told THISDAY that crane had already been secured by the FRSC to remove the carcass of the vehicles on the expressway to facilitate free flow of traffic.
Oct302007