Two persons have been reported dead and shops and properties worth millions of naira destroyed as a petrol tanker crashed at Dan Magaji Fly Over along Kaduna/Kano Expressway in Zaria, Kaduna State.
Abdurrahman Yakasai, Unit Commender, Federal Road Safety Corps, Zaria Unit, confirmed this in Zaria on Thursday.
Yakasai spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria.
Alhaji Maiwada Zariya, the Deputy Chairman, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Kaduna State Chapter, also confirmed that the accident happened at about 6:30am on Thursday.
Zariya added that the driver and his assistant were yet to be identified, but their remains have been deposited at a mortuary.
He said the petrol tanker, with plate number Jigawa RNG 065 XA, was conveying 45,000 litres of petrol from Lagos to Kano.
He explained that due to the ongoing road construction that led to the closure of one lane, the petrol tanker driver was avoiding a bus driver who made a dangerous overtaking.
He added: “In the process of avoiding the bus driver, he was forced to the shoulder of the road and the weight of the petrol forced the tanker to crash.
“In the process, the driver, his assistant died and one other person is critically injured (all yet to be identified).
“We have just lifted the tanker.
“Contrary to what some eyewitnesses were saying, it did not fall on anybody.”
NAN observed that a combined team of military, FRSC, Fire Service and other security agencies were working to evacuate the carcass of the articulated truck and maintain free traffic flow in the area.