By Ade Oyeyemi
Five people have been killed in a road accident involving a diesel tanker and five other vehicles along the Ojoo–Iwo Road expressway in Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State.
The crash occurred on Saturday at Aduloju when a fully loaded tanker carrying 45,000 litres of diesel reportedly suffered brake failure and rammed into an unregistered car and four commercial vehicles popularly known as Micra.
The victims, comprising two men and three women, reportedly died at the scene, while four other passengers were rescued from the wreckage.
An eyewitness, Sukurat Babajide, said one of the vehicles involved in the accident had overtaken the commercial vehicle she was travelling in shortly before the crash.
“One of the affected vehicles just overtook our car not up to five minutes when the incident happened. I was in another commercial vehicle. It was just like watching movies. When we got to that spot, five people had already been laid on the ground. They were two males and three females,” she said.
Another eyewitness, Kemi Oguntoyinbo, confirmed that the accident involved a tanker, an unregistered car and four commercial Micra vehicles.
She said five people died in the incident but could not provide further details about how the crash occurred.
The Oyo State Sector Commandant of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Kehinde Dahunsi, confirmed the accident in an interview with our correspondent in Ibadan.
Dahunsi attributed the crash to brake failure, explaining that the tanker rammed into the commercial vehicles while they were conveying passengers.
“The trailer actually failed brake and went and crushed the commercial vehicles popularly called Micra that was carrying passengers and five people died on the spot. Those passengers were nine in number.
“Two males and three females died on the spot. We were able to rescue the remaining passengers. The corpses are with the police,” he said.
The bodies of the deceased were reportedly handed over to the police, while the surviving passengers were rescued by emergency responders.
