Lagos tanker explosion: How smartphones caused death of many

Some hours after the inferno that erupted at Otedola Bridge, Lagos State, claiming many lives had died down, an eye witness, @otunbakush insisted that many people died because they were busy attempting to save their vehicles and video recording the incident.

The tweeted story had since gone viral. The eye witness said: “I lost my phone to that Berger-tanker accident yesterday. First, it wasn’t the tanker driver’s fault. A commercial bus entered the fast lane back without looking at his side. The tanker guy tried avoiding an accident, but look at what happened the end; he stepped on his brake, hit the partition and tripped over.

“Now, here is the part that got me like we are really mad in this country. Ignorance killed all the people that died. That tanker didn’t explode immediately. People had one minute to save themselves, every minute counts in an accident; people were trying to save their cars instead of their lives. There was a Camry car in front of the tanker, the man was actually trying to reverse his car. He was so foolish. Save yourself and salvage the car later. Fire and electricity are like the same, from one path to the other, now assumption killed us in this country. People were in their car making videos instead of running away. Fire started, panic sets in. I watched as people got burnt. It became a struggle contest; who going to come out first. Fire rounded them up, what they should have done first, they did it last and paused with their lives. May their soul rest in peace.  But foolishness killed those that died on that bridge. God forgive all their sins.”