BUS DRIVER ARRESTED AFTER GAS CYLINDER EXPLOSION KILLS 16
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The police have arrested the driver of an 18-seater bus that caught fire on Tuesday, killing 16 passengers when a gas cylinder exploded.
After veering off course near the Buhari Estate on the Abeokuta-Sagamu Expressway, the car caught fire.
On Tuesday, our correspondent was informed by an eyewitness who only gave his name as Akin that a number of cars that some supporters pulled over lacked fire extinguishers, which could have been used to stop the damage.
He also criticized the Ogun State Fire Service for their tardy action in trying to save the day.
Akin said, “An accident occurred at Kobape not long ago. An 18-seater bus caught fire while in motion. All the vehicles we stopped to get a fire extinguisher did not have one.
“We also called the fire service and they said they were coming but they did not arrive until the vehicle and the passengers got burnt.”
In a phone call with our correspondent, Florence Okpe, the Federal Road Safety Corps’ Public Education Officer for the Ogun Sector Command, confirmed the event and said that 16 people had been burned to death.
She added that the vehicle was overloaded with passengers and was conveying a gas cylinder that exploded and caused it to burn.
Okpe noted that three other passengers were also injured while two passengers escaped unhurt.
She said, “A total of 21 people were involved in the crash. Sixteen victims were burnt beyond recognition, making it impossible to ascertain their genders at the scene, while three others sustained injuries and were rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta.”
According to Okpe, the Sector Commander, Akinwunmi Fasakin, who led the rescue operation, expressed displeasure over what he described as the “carelessness of the driver.”
“Fasakin criticised the decision to transport a filled gas cylinder in a passenger vehicle, stressing that highly flammable substances should only be conveyed in designated vehicles operated by trained professionals. He also joined efforts to clear the wreckage and restore traffic flow along the busy route.”
The head of the FRSC expressed his sympathies to the families of the deceased and urged drivers and passengers to put safety first.
In a phone interview with our correspondent, Babatunde Akinbiyi, the spokesperson for the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency, stated that, despite reports of 16 fatalities, only 15 individuals perished in the collision.
The driver of the car who had been arrested at the Traffic Police Division prior to the arrival of further emergency personnel, he said, was the sixteenth person presumed dead.
Akinbiyi said, “According to an eyewitness account, the bus was outbound Abeokuta fully loaded with 21 passengers.
“However, due to excessive speed, the driver of the bus lost control, hit the culvert and somersaulted into the bush before it caught fire due to the two cylinders in the bus which were filled with gas.
“15 passengers were burnt beyond recognition while five were critically injured. However, the driver of the bus was not hurt but he is being detained at the State Motor Traffic Division, Ibara Abeokuta.”
He commiserated with the families of the deceased.
“While TRACE, FRSC and the police commiserate with the families of the deceased, drivers are again warned against excessive driving given its attendant consequences,” Akinbiyi concluded.
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