Also on Thursday, a petrol-laden tanker crashed into road barriers around 2.50 pm around the car park ‘C’ of the Redemption Centre, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Commercial activities were for some hours paralyzed and hundreds of motorists plying the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway on Thursday were stranded for several hours when a Liquefied Natural Gas-laden tanker crashed and spilled its content on the Joju Road, Sango, in the Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State.
The incident, which made most of the motorists furious and a lot of the business owners on the route apprehensive, was confirmed by both Clement Oladele, the State Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps and Babatunde Akinbiyi, the Public Relations Officer of the state Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE).
The FRSC commander said that the gas-laden tanker hit an object on a bad portion of the road and its content escaped at the Joju area of the expressway.
“Due to the explosive nature of the gas and the propensity for fire, both sides of the road had to be cordoned off,” Oladele said.
He added that traffic had to be stopped on both sides of the dualized road.
The FRSC boss stated, “The traffic build up from Joju has gone past the Dalemo U-turn outwards Lagos, while that inwards Lagos has extended to Iyana Ilogbo.
“The FRSC and fire service personnel are on the ground together with other security agents managing the situation.”
The TRACE spokesperson said motorists would need to exercise patience till the remaining content was transferred from the tanker.
Akinbiyi said the tanker had been stopped from moving in order to avert danger so that its content could be discharged into another vehicle.
He stated, “We have begun the process to offload the content of the tanker and it will take about two hours. Motorists need to be patient until we complete the exercise; if not, the chemical in the gas is too dangerous for human beings to inhale.
“Men of fire services have been on the ground to flush away the chemical immediately the gas is completely evacuated from the tanker.”
Also on Thursday, a petrol-laden tanker crashed into road barriers around 2.50 pm around the car park ‘C’ of the Redemption Centre, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Oladele said, “FRSC personnel working with sister traffic agencies and the construction company handling the road have been able to remove the barriers to enable free flow of traffic.
“The fire service has also been contacted as standard practice before trans-loading of the tanker’s content in order to avert a fire outbreak.
“Efforts are on to remove the crashed vehicle from the road. Motorists are advised to use alternative corridors like the Ikorodu-Sagamu Road, Lekki-Ajah-Epe Expressway and the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.”