Recent petrol tanker accidents
ithin two weeks from the end of March, several petrol tanker accidents occurred in some parts of the country, claiming scores of lives in the infernos that often follow. The rise of such incidents in recent days is a matter of great concern and requires concerted effort to curb it.
In Onitsha, the commercial hub of Anambra State, over 70 people were killed when a tanker involved in a traffic accident spilled its highly inflammable content. Thirty others were injured.
A few days later, another petrol-laden tanker fell off a bridge in Lagos, starting a fire that consumed buildings and vehicles; there were no reports of death in that incident. A couple of days after, another petrol tanker was involved in an accident in the Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos.
No fewer than 34 houses and 70 shops were razed by fire after a tanker bearing 33,000 litres of Automotive Gas Oil, also known as diesel, crashed in the Idimu area of Lagos in the early hours of last Saturday.
The Public Relations Officer, National Emergency Management Agency, South-West Zone, Ibrahim Farinloye, said that the petrol was ignited by the flames of a nearby barbecue shop.
Petrol Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers (NUPENG ) condemned the recent incidents involving its members, calling for law enforcement agents to investigate their causes and ascertain the products’ source.
The Governor of Lagos State, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode blamed the frequent tanker accidents in the state on what he said was the indiscipline of the truck drivers.
These incidents also illustrate the failure of successive governments over the years to make Nigeria’s oil refineries work, the depots stocked and to check pipeline vandalism, thus removing the dangerous practice of transporting petroleum products across vast territories in the country. The practice also encourages smuggling of Nigeria’s imported petroleum products to neighbouring countries.
It is a shame that this practice should persist despite Nigeria being one of the leading oil producers in the world.
It is a common sight on some roads that fuel tankers have turned major highways into their parking lots, close to population centres, resisting every effort to shift bases to safer environment. Often where the authorities move against them, their unions launch a campaign of blackmail, calling up strikes that cripple economic activities. But not a moment is spared to consider the catastrophic fire incidents that such obstinacy can bring in such places and to the communities there.
In considering long-lasting remedies, the federal government should devise ways to minimise the use of tankers to convey fuel to parts of the country. The refineries that were virtually abandoned by successive governments should be revived and new ones built to address domestic shortfalls that became a veritable source of enrichment for government officials and their cronies, and which sustained a problematic fuel subsidy regime and perpetuated the fuel import scams.
In the meantime, the indiscipline among the tanker drivers can be checked through the requirement that they abide strictly to road traffic rules, ensuring that their vehicles are roadworthy at any particular before they can be certified as fit to carry such heavy products. Some of the drivers are known to prevent other road users from overtaking their vehicles on the highway, no matter the speed at which they are travelling. This is a potentially serious problem that should be addressed through enlightenment campaigns, especially by organisations like the Federal Road Safety Corps.
Many oil marketers involved in the subsidy issue use tankers to store the product. But tank farms should not be inside the town; instead, such facilities should be located in the outskirts, and move into the city only at night to discharge their cargo.