“The next thing I saw close to me was fuel on the ground. I had to jump and run away. I saw a car, a white golf, reversing; I told the guy, ‘leave your car and run’. He did not answer me," he said. “When I saw the fire, I ran away; that was how I escaped from it. Immediately, I crossed to the other side I heard a bang as though it was a bomb. I looked at my car; fire had gutted it; it was burning.”
A Lagos resident has narrated how he exchanged his car for his life after being caught in traffic as a petrol tanker lost control and spilled its content at the Otedola Bridge end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, consequently resulting in the death of at least nine people and the burning of scores of vehicles.
Speaking with Proshare WebTV, he recalled seeing the tanker lose control, at which point he was sure tragedy was in the offing.
“I was coming from work,” he said.
“There was a very slight holdup and all of us were moving gradually. The next thing I saw ahead of me was a tanker reversing. Immediately it came back, it hit the culvert and fell.
“Immediately it fell down, I opened door of my car, removed my phone and my power bank with my key, and I was saying, ‘what is happening?’
“The next thing I saw close to me was fuel on the ground. I had to jump and run away. I saw a car, a white golf, reversing; I told the guy, ‘leave your car and run’. He did not answer me.
“When I saw the fire, I ran away; that was how I escaped from it. Immediately, I crossed to the other side I heard a bang as though it was a bomb. I looked at my car; fire had gutted it; it was burning.”
The tragedy has been described [story_link align="left"]'The Entire Country Mourns' — Buhari Sympathises With Lagos Over Tanker Explosion[/story_link]by President Muhammadu Buhari as “one of the greatest we have seen in recent times”, while Akinwunmi Ambode, Governor of Lagos, has promised[story_link align="left"]We'll Mitigate Things Of This Nature In Future, Ambode Says After Visiting Tanker Explosion Scene[/story_link] to “mitigate things of this nature in future”.