A devastating accident between a commercial bus and tanker on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in the Fidiwo/Ajebo area has left eighteen passengers and the bus driver dead.
The accident which occurred around 1pm at a section of the road where there is a diversion of traffic to a single lane, was caused by a loaded fuel tanker.
The Public Relations Officer of the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency, Babatunde Akinbiyi, said the tanker was trying to overtake another vehicle, a Dangote truck loaded with cement, when it had a head-on collision with the Lagos-bound commercial bus, killing all the passengers and the driver instantly.
“Our men who were at the scene of the accident said that all the 18 passengers in the bus and the driver died on the spot, while the cement truck which had also given way to the overtaking tanker was also affected by the impact of the crash,” Akinbiyi said.
He however, did not specify whether the corpses of the victims would be taken to a morgue in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital or that of the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital in Sagamu.
The number plates of the three vehicles involved in the accident are: Dangote truck – AJG 40 XA; fuel tanker – RAN 571 XA; and the commercial bus – AGL 373 XR.
As at press time, a combined team of TRACE, the Nigeria Police and the Federal Road Safety Corps was already on the scene while the petroleum product being conveyed to Ibadan by the tanker was also being trans-loaded into another tanker for onward delivery.
