Vincent Toritseju
18 December 2017, Sweetcrude, Lagos — The National Chairman of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) Comrade Salmon Oladiti has bemoaned the loss of valuable property occasioned by the petrol tanker fire incident which occurred in the Festac area of Lagos while urging members of the union to continue to exercise extreme care on the road especially, during the yuletide period.
The tanker explosion last week at the Festac – Amuwo Odofin link bridge resulted in 26 vehicles and four motorcycles being completely burnt. No lives were however lost in the accident.
Oladiti in a statement signed by the group’s Public Relations Officer Comrade Atanda Adebayo lamented the incident which he said had dented the growing profile of the PTD which recorded a zero accident across the country in the second half of the year.
He said, statistics released by the Federal Roads Safety Corps, (FRSC), has shown a drastic reduction in the rate of tanker accidents across the country.
“We are saddened by this accident which occurred just as we are about celebrating a tanker accident-free record, as reported by the FRSC.
“Though we are grateful that no one died in the accident, it, however, led to a lot of damages as the explosion led to the burning of so many cars and motorcycles,” he said.
He asked God to console all those who lost their properties to the accident and charged them to see beyond the accident, knowing that when there is life, there is hope.
He tasked his officers to continue to adhere to the various training rogrammes organised for them at various times and to eschew recklessness on the wheels.
He opined that the training has started yielding positive results which have also manifested in the records of the FRSC.
He, therefore, urged his members to observe great care especially during this yuletide, which is expected to record as usual a high volume of travellers on the roads.
“We will continue to urge all our members to be extremely careful during this yuletide period because of the high volume of traffic that would be witnessed on the road.
We urge them to always think safety first and think of other road users and their loved ones who are expecting their safe return from their business trip.
We must know that if all of us play our part, we would be able to reduce if not completely obliterate carnage on our roads.” He said