Twelve people sustained varying degrees of burn on Thursday in a road accident involving three trucks and one other vehicle in Ikire, Osun State.
According to sources near the scene, two trucks carrying cement and one other carrying petroleum, as well as, a commercial bus heading towards Ife end were involved in the crash.
The accident which occurred around 3:30 a.m. few kilometres to Naira and Kobo Junction in Ikire led to a diversion of traffic to Ibadan lane of the dual carriageway, as people tried to put out the fire.
The content of one of the trucks involved, it was learnt, later spilled to the other lane of the road.
A commuter, Michael Mokolade, whose vehicle was near the scene of the accident when the crash occurred, told our correspondent that the vehicles collided while making efforts to avoid the bad portion of the road shortly after Alasape Prayer ground.
He said, “My vehicle was about 10 vehicles away from those ones involved in the crash. The vehicles were trying to avoid bad portion of the road and they, in the process, ran into each other.
“Initially, people were scared to move near the scene, but some of the commuters in the commercial vehicles involved later managed to disembark, but many of them were trapped as the fire grew intense.”
When contacted, General Manager of Osun Ambulance Scheme, Dr. Olusegun Babatunde, said twelve people that sustained various degrees of burns in the accident had been taken to General Hospital in Ikire.
He said “Efforts are on to move the victims to Ife as soon as possible.”
Commenting on the accident, Osun Sector Commander of Federal Road Safety Corps, Mr. Peter Oke, said the crash occurred at Alasepe Area, Ikire Osun State.
He said, “Two of the three trailers involved are Dangote trucks including a tanker and a bus.
“One of the passengers in the bus in the hospital confirmed that they were only 2 passengers in the vehicle and that two of them survived.
“The status of the Dangote vehicles and the tanker could not be ascertained for now until the fire is completely extinguished.”
Administrative Officer of Osun State Fire Service, Fatai Aremu said men of the Federal Fire Service were deployed to the scene of the crash.
“They are still there trying to put out the fire,” Aremu said.
