Port Harcourt, Nigeria – A catastrophic accident was narrowly avoided in the early hours of the morning along the Mercy Land East-West Road, Port Harcourt Highway when a heavy-duty truck carrying compressed natural gas (CNG) belonging to Power Energy veered dangerously close to crushing a taxi.
According to the taxi driver, the incident occurred as he slowed down to allow a Julius Berger truck, loaded with sand, to reverse into its offloading point. Unknown to him, a CNG truck approached from behind at high speed, swerving in an attempt to avoid the reversing truck.
“The incident happened so fast, it left the driver confused,” recounted a front-seat passenger, still shaken by the experience. “I feared the truck was going to fall on us. I kept telling the driver, ‘Open the door, let’s get out!’ But he was too stunned to react. The passengers in the back had already jumped out. The truck just pushed us aside—when it climbed up, I thought, ‘This thing is going to fall.’ That was my biggest fear. If it had fallen, we would have been finished.”
The driver of the CNG truck explained that he had assumed the Julius Berger truck had completed its reverse maneuver and cleared the expressway. To his shock, the truck suddenly pulled forward, forcing him to slam the brakes—only to realize that the braking system had failed.
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“The driver thought the Julius Berger truck was already inside,” a truck supervisor stated. “But then, suddenly, the truck moved forward, and he was already too close. He pumped air into the brake system, but there was no response.”
Miraculously, no lives were lost. The taxi driver and passengers, though in shock, expressed gratitude for their survival. Passersby assisted in removing the taxi from beneath the CNG truck. Authorities are now awaiting the return of the Julius Berger truck driver, who is alleged to have caused the accident, to address the matter of damages. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFfRPGtxd2X/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
