Following the incessant fire accidents on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway caused by petroleum tanker drivers, truck owners, petroleum marketers and retailers have called on the government to ensure stiffer punishments for tanker drivers who fail to comply with driving instructions.
According to truck owners, whenever such accidents occur, it is only the company and the truck owners that bear the losses even though most of it is caused by the recklessness of the tanker drivers.
Following the incessant fire accidents on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway caused by petroleum tanker drivers, truck owners, petroleum marketers and retailers have called on the government to ensure stiffer punishments for tanker drivers who fail to comply with driving instructions.
According to truck owners, whenever such accidents occur, it is only the company and the truck owners that bear the losses even though most of it is caused by the recklessness of the tanker drivers.
Sources in the downstream have also confirmed that a lot of the drivers do not have valid driving licenses and that whenever a truck accident happens they do not get any sanction, according to them, most of the sanctions are put on the companies and not on the drivers
A prominent marketer, who prefers not to be mentioned, told Shipping Position Daily that 90 percent of the fire accidents on Nigerian roads as a result of petroleum tanker collision are caused by bad condition of the roads.
“90 % of the accident is as a result of bad roads while 10% percent is from the drivers”, he alleged
According to our source, there is no much enforcement of most of the road regulations, to check if the drivers are over-speeding or over-taking, that some of the trucks are not road worthy and that this leads to frequent break down on the road.
He said that whenever there is an accident, “the driver will run away and look for employment somewhere else without any data. The government does not put much emphasis on the driver’s training and the drivers need to be punished instead of seizing their trucks”.
A petroleum marketer, Mr. Olanife Adeoye who also spoke to our correspondent however suggested that the Federal Government should collaborate with the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Worker (NUPENG) in order to train the tanker drivers.
Olanife confirmed that many of the drivers are usually under the influence of alcohol whenever they are driving and that some of them cause accidents deliberately after diverting their employer’s product and selling it.
“In most of the reports we get on daily basis, they divert the trucks into the bush while the truck owner and the product owners will be looking for the truck and drivers for days”, he said.
According to him, truck owners suffer terrible losses whenever an accident occurs because the trucks cost nothing less than N15million.
Meanwhile, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) said on Friday that the frequent truck accidents on the highways could be checked if marketers load in their geo-political zones.
Financial Secretary of IPMAN in South-West Zone. Alhaji Adebisi Bada, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the government should make all NNPC depots across the country functional.
He said that nation would be saved the agony of losing lives and properties through such accidents if all the depots were working.
Bada said that many trucks travelled long distances to load petroleum products in Lagos, stressing that the drivers were always overstretched and susceptible to accidents on the highways.
“If all marketers load petroleum products in their respective areas, this will go a long way in averting frequent accidents on the roads.
“Government needs to revert to the previous loading system so that the frequent petroleum tankers accidents will reduce drastically,’’ Bada said.
He urged government to expand the petroleum pipeline network to accommodate pumping of products to all the NNPC depots.
Bada also urged the Federal Government to upgrade the existing infrastructure in the oil and gas industry to reduce highway congestion and exposure of innocent lives to danger. (NAN)
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