A Danfo driver was injured yesterday, following an accident that involved a diesel-laden tanker of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and three commercial busses otherwise known as Danfo at Toyota bus Stop on Apapa-Oshodi Expressway. The tanker was coming from Mile 2. The accident occurred around 4:30pm. The driver sustained injuries on head, mouth and hand.
The brake of the tanker was said to have failed while trying to navigate through the bridge to the Airport road. In the process of coming back through the rear, it somersaulted and hit three Danfo buses.
The third bus swerved to the other side of the road due to the gravity of the speed.
Sensing danger, the tanker driver fled immediately.
Traders at Ladipo blamed the tanker driver for the accident. Some of them claimed the driver lacked the experience of driving such a tanker.
An eyewitness, Dele Adesola, a mechanic who came to work in Ladipo market, told The Nation that the tanker driver might be sleeping while he was driving because he saw him shouting from afar as he has noticed his brake had failed.
Adesola said: ‘’The NUPENG tanker was coming from Mile 2. Suddenly, I saw it coming with speed shouting as he was driving. There, I noticed the brake is gone. Three Danfo busses on the road side waiting to pick passengers were hit. It hit the first, second and crushed the last bus which swerved to the other side with the tanker. Before we knew it, the driver was nowhere to be found and the policemen quickly came into the scene to see if there was any casualty. We thank God no passenger was in any of the three Danfo busses.’’
Another eye witness who spoke in anonymity said the Danfo busses are meant to be blamed for being heedless stressing that they shouldn’t have parked by the road to pick passengers.
He urged government to construct a culvert along the bridge.
A panel beater who gave his name as simply Tunji described the Danfo drivers careless for picking passengers by the road side, stressing that the accident might not have occurred if there was no bus on the road.
“People usually stay by the road side to board buses here. The Danfo buses take passengers to Mafoluku. Government has warned them to stay off this Airport road but they won’t listen. The tanker driver was raising the alarm while coming with speed. It brake had failed then. If those Danfo busses didn’t park to pick passengers, the tanker won’t have run into them. We want the government to place a stringent law to stop Danfo drivers picking passengers by road side,” he said.
Efforts to speak with the drivers of the three Danfo busses were futile as they were busy looking for a means to toll their buses before the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) comes into the scene.
However, some area boys who came into the scene from Ladipo market were seen with containers and kegs scooping diesel from the tanker. LASEMA officials later came into the scene to tow the buses away.