Benin City – A yet to be ascertained number of persons lost their lives recently in a ghastly motor accident along the Benin- Ore expressway.
The accident that involved a truck loaded with petroleum products also led to the burning and destruction of over 15 vehicles and 6 houses and goods worth millions of naira. The accident occurred when a petroleum tanker belonging to an indigenous oil firm (Name withheld) allegedly developed some problems with the brake system leading to its collision with an abandoned vehicle.
The collision, according to an eye witness, resulted in the petroleum tanker bursting into flame , the resultant fire led to the death of no fewer than 20 persons ( as at press time) though the figure is to expected to rise steeply.
According to a eye witness that pleaded anonymity, he saw the tanker driver struggling with the brake, trying effortlessly to halt the momentum of the petroleum tanker before colliding with the abandoned vehicle.The accident occurred around 7 pm in the evening and was primarily caused by brake failure and the abandoned vehicle.
The eyewitness also told our news crew that residents of the area have complained about the abandoned vehicle as it was on a dangerous curve on the road but that the relevant authorities paid a deaf ear to their pleas.
According to the source, the driver of the petroleum tanker identified as Joshua Irorere, miraculously escaped from the inferno and literally vanished into thin air.
The said source also revealed that the said driver, Joshua Irorere, was visibly shaken and apoplectic before scampering into the falling evening clouds. The resultant scene was “hellish” as one survivor succinctly puts it: burnt and charred bodies everywhere, burning vehicles and houses enveloped in thick fumes of suffocating smoke mingled with screams of dying humans.
The source further informed us that a growing number of angry mobs were further incensed on learning that the tanker driver did not die in the fire and were looking for him as they blamed him for the accident. As at press time, the whereabouts of the driver, Joshua Irorere has not been ascertained as the company he works for said they have neither seen nor heard from him since the accident and that they believe he died in the fire that ensued.
However, the bodies of those who lost their lives in the accident have been deposited in the mortuary while those who suffered burns and injuries are been treated in an undisclosed hospital.
