From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has cautioned motorists to avoid night trips, due to the fatal road traffic crash that occurred at KM 02 Koriagi village Agaei, Lapai-Bida route involving a tanker loaded with petroleum.
FRSC Corps Marshal, Shehu Mohammed, in a statement yesterday, by Corps Public Education Officer, Olusegun Ogungbemide, called on stakeholders, and motoring public to join the Corps FRSC to discourage night trips and discontinue over reliance on unsafe means of transportation.
Mohammed said the crash occured as a result of speed violation that eventually led to loss of control and ended up in an inferno happened on Sunday 8 September.
He explained that unfortunate incident involved a total of 55 male adults. From the number, 18 passengers were rescued with varying degrees of injuries while 37 were killed.
“Preliminary investigation report on the crash revealed that the it involved 4 vehicles, a DAF Tanker, 2 DAF Trucks and a Toyota car.
“The report also stated that the Tanker loaded with petroleum motor spirit (PMS) from Lagos onward to Kano was driving against the legal speed limit on that route when the driver lost control of the wheels and fell on the highway. The impact resulted in an inferno that burnt down the vehicle.
“Unfortunately, while the trailer was in flames, another DAF truck conveying
cows and humans whose driver was also obviously engaged in speed violation also crashed onto the burning Tanker.
“The other 2 vehicles, the Toyota and the remaining DAF Truck that were not observing driving distance also crashed onto the same inferno. All the affected vehicles got burnt down completely.
“The rescued victims have been taken to Lapai General Hospital and Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida Specialist Hospital in Minna, Niger State for proper medical attention,” he said.
He recalled that since the assumption of office of the Corps Marshal, Shehu Mohammed, the Corps rose to the challenge of confronting this bad road use behaviour on all fronts.
“This gesture led to a high level of partnership between the Federal Road Safety Corps, leadership of the various Transport Unions, Security Agencies, as well as State Traffic Management Agencies.
“Irrespective of these efforts, most of these commuters still disregard the sensitisation campaigns and travel to their destinations using the wrong means of conveyance.
“More worrisome is the fact that a whole lot of these trailer drivers travel at night when the operational arm of the Corps and the task force are not available.
“It is on the strength of the foregoing that the Corps Marshal made these clarion calls to members of the Public to compliment FRSC’s efforts towards bringing these deadly road traffic violations to a halt,” he said.
