Eleven vehicles burnt in another auto crash at Ojoo, Ibadan

 

The Ojoo end of the Lagos- Ibadan expressway terminates the 110kilometre Oworonsoki-Lagos to Ojoo in Ibadan, Oyo State highway. Of the stretch, it’s the less than two kilometre Ojoo end of the road that remains uncompleted even after the road was opened 34 years ago. Work is still ongoing there but the spot remains notorious for fatal accidents.

As at Tuesday evening when Vanguard visited the spot, the latest contractor working on that section of the road, Messrs PW Nigeria was still watering the road, possibly getting ready for laying final asphalt.

Another crash again took place there around 2.a.m Wednesday that consumed a total of 11 vehicles. Thank God it took place in the night when human traffic on the road was minimal.

The Lagos Ibadan Expressway (Federal Route 20) was conceived within the Third National Development Plan Period (1975-80).

Limited access highway
The road  was constructed by Julius Berger Nigeria (Oworonsoki to Sagamu Interchange) and Dumez Construction Company (Sagamu Interchange to Ojoo Ibadan). The road was opened to traffic in 1978.

It was designed as a limited access highway; with exits only at Sagamu and Ibadan Tollgate, with a tollgate in the middle at Ogere. The World Bank financed the project but later years observed that the road was not effectively managed.

People did whatever they liked on the road corridors, unchallenged by the owners of the road. Unplanned communities sprung up and road’s right of way encroached upon at various places like Ibafo, Redemption Camp Mowe and Ojoo in Ibadan.

The roadway is now so porous that any attempt at tolling will be confronted with impediments as in the experience of the concessionaire on the Lekki Expressway in Lagos State.

15 die at Ojoo on May 27, 2011
On May 27, 201, barely two weeks after 70 persons lost their lives in a luxurious bus/petrol tanker crash in Ibadan, another one was recorded at the notorious spot in Ojoo, claiming the lives of 15 people including a pregnant woman.

The accident, which occurred at the Ojoo-Ibadan Expressway intersection, a spot notorious for fatal accidents, involved a petrol tanker marked Katsina XA 355 KTN and three commercial buses around 3 p.m that Saturday.

An eye-witness account said that 10 other persons sustained serious injuries and were taken to the hospital. According to the eye-witness, trouble started when the petrol tanker heading to the northern part of the country lost control and crashed into the Ojoo market.

The petrol tanker driver having noticed a break failure struggled to negotiate the sharp bend at the intersection, but lost control and overran the market killing 15 persons including a pregnant woman before it entered a supermarket.

An eye-witness further revealed that many people also injured in a stampede that followed the crash.

Some of the injured were, however, taken to a nearby hospital by men of FRSC who were immediately contacted after the crash.

Subsequently Oyo State government appealed to the people of Ojoo area to vacate the accident spot as efforts would be made to rehabilitate the road in the area to prevent further mishap.

Mr. Bola Alphonso, one of the former governor Adebayo Alao-Akala’s Special Advisers, who visited the area appealed to the people to keep calm.

Again, 4 tankers, 7  vehicles burnt at Ojoo
A total of 11 vehicles were again on Wednesday burnt following a ghastly auto-accident in front of the NNPC Mega Station on the Iwo-Ojoo highway in Ibadan.

Speaking on the incident which occurred at about 2:30 a.m, the NNPC Station Manager, Mr Victor Bello, said a truck with Lagos registration number XQ 717 GGE carrying coal coming from Ojoo crossed lanes and hit an NNPC truck attempting to park.

“The NNPC truck upon impact lost control and hit another NNPC truck that was fully loaded with petrol. The petrol spilled on the road and immediately led to an inferno.

“That was how fire started spreading from one vehicle to the other, affecting seven of them. It also caught up with a truck that was fully loaded with diesel, affecting a total of four tankers,” Bello said.

He lamented that officials of the Oyo State Fire Service did not turn up until about 3a.m when they eventually put out the fire, adding that there was no casualty.

But the Oyo State FRSC Sector Commander, Godwin Ogagaoghene, said that the driver of the truck carrying coal had fallen asleep behind the wheels.

“He fell asleep due to fatigue; he was coming from the Iwo road bypass when his vehicle which was descending a slope lost control and ran off lane, hitting a billboard and fell.

“Subsequently, he was hit by an oncoming truck loaded with petrol, and the leaked fuel sparked off the fire. The damage would not have been hazardous but for the indiscriminate parking of the other vehicles involved.  The vehicles were parked by the side of the road in front of the NNPC filling station,” Ogagaoghene said.

The Commander said men of his command had since arrested the situation by controlling traffic and towing away the burnt tankers and vehicles blocking the highway.

When Vanguard visited the scene, thousands of sympathisers were sighted discussing the incident.
The three other tankers were marked Lagos XU 39 KRD, Lagos XQ 647 MUS and Lagos XU 115 KSF.