Nigeria loses N7bn to fuel tankers road accidents

The Chairman, House of Representatives ad hoc committee on ending road accidents involving fuel tankers, Rep. Raji Tasir Olawale, has declared that the country loses an estimated N7 billion annually to crashes caused by fuel tankers and other articulated vehicles.

Rep. Olawale made the disclosure on Tuesday in Abuja, at the public hearing organized by the lower chamber of the national assembly on the need for government to address the menace of accidents involving fuel tankers and other articulated vehicles.

The lawmaker said that in 2016 alone, a total of 306 deaths were recorded from road accidents involving fuel tankers while 750 persons sustained various degrees of injuries.

He stated that the enormity of the consequences of road carnages caused by fuel tankers can be better appreciated when the losses to human lives and damages to goods and property are quantified.

These statistics, the committee chairman added, are alarming and disconcerting and should ordinarily spur the government into taking action towards reducing the incidences of the carnage occasioned by accidents involving tankers and other articulated vehicles.

While supporting appropriate legislative framework to reduce road mishaps caused by fuel tankers, he said that findings by the committee revealed tales of agonies, trauma, loss of lives and livelihoods, incapacitation and damages to property as some of the grave consequences of these avoidable road mishaps.

“It is indeed, a serious problem that must be approached with unalloyed commitment and utmost seriousness.

“We need to take a holistic view of causative factors some of which could be the design of our roads, the state of these roads, the design and state of the vehicles, policy framework for operators in the sector and most importantly the human factor which takes a center stage and places a huge moral burden on owners of these vehicles vis-à-vis the need to respect the sanctity of human lives in pursuit of profit. “We equally need to look at the issues of compensation to victims of these carnages. Are the existing legislations on compensation adequate to address issues that may arise from the accidents; issues such as the care of dependents of victims and those who sustain varying degrees of injuries?

“Are there records of prosecution in instances where prima facie cases of human errors have been so established against the drivers of these vehicles or cases of vicarious liability for the principals when the drivers are deceased and so on? ” the committee chairman said.

General Secretary of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Joseph Ogbebor in his submission to the ad hoc committee attributed the spate of road accidents involving fuel tankers and other articulated vehicles to the state of dilapidated roads in the country.

Ogbebor said that because of the bad roads, “these tankers easily fall off and spill their contents which are highly inflammable.

“Our research and investigations show that all the major roads in the country are in a state of disrepair and this is responsible for the spate of fuel tankser accidents in the country.”

He also blamed the ailing economy especially the scarcity of foreign exchange as contributing to the rising cost of maintaining fuel tankers as some of the reasons for the road accidents involving fuel tankers.

The NUPENG chief advised the committee to prevail on the federal government to rehabilitate all major highways, fix the nation’s refineries and make petroleum products available at loading depots located throughout the country.

Similarly, he recommended continuos training for tanker drivers, enforcement of speed limit by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), ban on night driving and medical tests for tanker drivers as solutions to ending the scourge of fuel tankers accidents.