Forte Oil truck spills fuel causes pandemonium at Lagos Airport
…… Aged driver safes passengers, motorists on traffic
By Abisola THOMPSON
The failure of 33,000 truck of Forte Oil Plc laden with Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) somersaulted on the link road connecting Domestic airport of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in and caused pandemonium.
TBI Africa gathered that the incident which occurred about 10a.m caused heavy vehicular traffic around the airport and its environs for several hours.
Deaths of passengers at bus stop and inside vehicles in the traffic created by the traffic light was however prevented by the aged driver who battled to stop the truck coming from Ikeja and by climbing the divider of the expressway to a nearby fence of Minimah Estate belonging to Nigerian Army.
The driver of the truck controlled the truck such that the Local Airport bus stop building was totally avoided.
This again has raised the fear of poor safety compliance by trucks being deployed by petroleum marketing companies operating in the country.
The vehicle of our correspondent who arrived from Abuja with Ibom Air flight Z40307 of 10.30am was diverted through the other link road of MMA1 terminal of Arik and Aero Contractors.
Information gathered from the eye witness of the accident claimed that the conductor of the truck tried all in vain to stop the truck with stick to shock the tyre of the truck which recorded break failure on top of the bridge that linked the Airport to Ikeja.
According to eye witness, the loud cry of the aged driver of Forte Oil ” Ero (passenger),I don’t want to kill, made several commercial taxi that saw the truck that climbed the divider of the expressway saved several lifes.
A yellow taxi driver who gave his name as Baba Risi commended the aged driver for saving his life. his loud voice woke him up from the bench where he jumped to escape before the truck fell on the ground.
Also an eye witness account disclosed that the arrival of fire fighter trucks of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria ( FAAN) and the Lagos State Government fire fighter trucks prevented fire explosion of the volatile PMS that spilled on theAirport road and drainage.
Road users we’re directed by fire fighters and security agencies to switch off their phones and hide inside pocket
A reliable source from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Fire Service Department, said that the disaster was averted by the prompt action taken by both FAAN fire fighters and the Lagos State Fire Fighters.
He said: “The truck lost balance and spilled its content very close to the Airport Garage which is the road leading to the airport from Ikeja.
“Fire fighters responded quickly and diluted the contents with a ” foam blanket”, to prevent any fire outbreak.
“Also, some officers were quickly deployed to the nearby FAAN residential quarters to monitor the situation.”
DSP Joseph Alabi, spokesperson for the Lagos Airport Police Command, who also confirmed the incident, commended the roles played by all agencies to avert the disaster.
Alabi said following the incident, the Police from Area F Command and traffic officials embarked on rerouting vehicles coming and going into the airport to ease the traffic gridlock.
He said vehicles coming from Ikeja were directed to use the newly constructed Airport Road via Oshodi while those exiting were diverted to the MMA1 to link up with the Agege Motor Road via National
It is also not clear whether the truck branded in Forte Oil is owned by Forte Oil or owned by a dealer.
Efforts were being made to tow the fallen truck away as at the time of filing this report.
