Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State has expressed sadness over the petrol tanker explosion on the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway, which claimed 11 lives on Saturday.

Mr Mbah, who was at the Ugwu-Onyeama accident scene for an on-the-spot assessment, said the government had already taken action to ensure the victims received full medical attention.

The governor also revealed that the government was taking steps to forestall future occurrences, including enforcing road rules and fixing the part of the federal road in disrepair.

Mr Mbah commiserated with the families of the victims, describing the accident as “unfortunate”.

He directed the sector commander, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Enugu, Franklin Agbakoba, and the state’s Commissioner for Transport, Obi Ozor, to ensure that tankers conveying inflammable substances have anti-spill locks that would prevent a spill in case of an accident.

“This is an accident involving a tanker that preliminary investigation shows may have had a brake failure, fell down, had its product, premium motor spirit, spilt from the tank and ignited.

“But as I said, the investigation is still at the preliminary stages. The police and other law enforcement agencies are on it,” he said.

The governor noted that in the meantime, he had moved those needing treatment to hospitals for full medical attention.

“My health commissioner and my special adviser on health, the chief medical director of Enugu State University of Science and Technology Teaching Hospital, the police, and FRSC are all involved in taking care of the hospitalised.

“They have my instructions to ensure maximum medical attention is given to the survivors,” the governor said.

He said the government would deploy some traffic rules to forestall a recurrence of the incident.

Briefing the governor on the incident, the FRSC sector commander said the tanker spill resulted from a brake failure by the fuel tanker.

He added that 11 people lost their lives at the scene, while lots of unidentified injured road users were rushed to hospitals for treatment.

The sector commander thanked the governor for showing leadership by rushing to the scene and equally undertaking to foot the medical bills.

(NAN)