Passengers travelling in a bus have had a really narrow escape as a tanker rammed into their vehicle in Osogbo.
The scene of accident
Many pedestrians as well as the passengers inside a commercial bus on Odi Olowo Street in Osogbo, on Monday afternoon, escaped being crushed to death when the driver of a petrol tanker lost control of the truck and hit the bus.
According to a report by Punch Metro, a journalist, who was at the scene of the accident, observed that the tanker, which was coming towards Ola Iya Junction from Odi Olowo Street, lost control, ran over the kerb and crossed to the other lane before hitting the side of the mini bus which had just discharged some passengers.
The truck knocked down an electric pole on its path but before it could get to the bus, the few passengers remaining inside had jumped and fled to safety.
Similarly, pedestrians and shop owners fled the area on seeing that the truck had lost control.
No life was lost and nobody was injured in the accident which occurred at about noon.
The driver of the truck burst into tears on seeing the damage he had caused; explaining that he managed to manoeuvre the truck from running over some vehicles waiting to be passed by the traffic light.
The driver, who spoke in Yoruba to a traffic warden that arrived the scene of the accident, said the truck had brake failure and that he tried not to head toward the junction because doing so would have led to loss of lives.
He expressed gratitude to God because the tanker was empty; otherwise, he said, it might have caught fire when it knocked down the electric pole.
It will be recalled that 11 passengers, including a driver of a commercial bus, were burnt to death in Ile Ife on Sunday in an accident similar to the one in Osogbo.
In the Ile Ife accident, a bus rammed into a tanker which was making a U-Turn while the truck almost ran into another commercial bus in an accident which occurred in Osogbo barely 24 hours after.
Many people were burnt to death.