Tragedy struck the Building Materials Market axis of the Onitsha–Awka–Enugu Expressway on Thursday as a gas tanker plowed into two commercial shuttle buses, leaving eight passengers injured and sending commuters into a panic.
Several others narrowly escaped what could have been a fatal disaster.
Eyewitnesses said the tanker, loaded with Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), lost control while attempting a high-speed overtake.
The impact sent one bus somersaulting multiple times before it landed upside down, while the tanker crashed into a roadside drainage.
Ifeoma Uzor, who witnessed the accident, said: “The tanker driver was speeding and tried to avoid a bus picking up passengers on the roadside. In doing so, he collided with another bus, which flipped over before finally hitting the drainage. It was chaotic, and screams filled the air.”
The tanker driver, identified only as Nnamdi, told reporters: “I was driving in my lane when a bus suddenly stopped to pick up passengers. I swerved to avoid it but collided with another bus, and that caused the crash.”
Tension escalated briefly as an angry mob attempted to confront the driver, but police quickly restored order.
Injured passengers were rushed to a nearby hospital by first responders and concerned passersby.
A police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said both reckless overtaking by the tanker driver and unsafe roadside parking by the buses contributed to the accident.
“Eight seriously injured passengers were taken to the hospital promptly,” the officer added.
The Onitsha–Awka Expressway appears to be increasingly accident-prone. On the same day, a trailer carrying a 40-foot container overturned at Ntenje, spilling its cargo on the road, while another overturned near Zone 13, blocking traffic.
Earlier, a dispatch rider lost his life in Lagos when a tanker collided with him along the Apapa–Oshodi Expressway.
Authorities are calling for extreme caution from motorists, warning that a combination of reckless driving and poor roadside management continues to make Nigeria’s highways deadly.
