Several die in Enugu petrol tanker inferno

Tears flowed in Enugu state as some lives were lost on Friday night at the popular Onyema Mines area of the Enugu/Onitsha Expressway following a fire started by a road accident involving a petrol tanker and a smaller vehicle with several passengers.

Eyewitness accounts have it that the petrol-filled tanker had a brake-failure while descend¬ing the sloping portion of the road and then slammed into the smaller vehicle, crushing all the passengers before bursting into flames.

About 20 persons are speculated to have been burnt beyond recognition in the incident, but several attempts to get the Enugu State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, to confirm the exact number of casualties before filing this report, were not successful.

As at the time of filing this report yesterday afternoon, vehicular traffic along the ever-busy Enugu-Onitsha road was still witnessing a serious gridlock as a result of the the accident which occurred close to the popular 9th Mile Corner.

Recalling that the stretch of the road where the accident occurred was notorious for such incidents due to bad spots and topography, witnesses said that the fire from the burning tanker affected about six other vehicles conveying passengers.

Unfortunately, help could not quickly come as the State Fire Service stationed at the heart of the town.
So, the flames from the burning tanker spread across the two lanes of the expressway, thus forcing travellers to either return to where they were coming from or use alternative routes to and from Enugu.
Commuters who insisted on getting to their destinations that night had no other option than to use the risky Milken Hill road, an old route that cuts through mountainous Enugwu-Ngwo community before rejoining the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway.
Most commuters usually abhor travelling through the Milken Hill route due its mean¬dering and undulating nature, with steep slopes that pose dan¬gers to motorists who need extra caution to pass through.