THE driver of a petrol tanker with registration number WR 1270 C and his mate perished in the afternoon of December 28, 2006 when their vehicle, which was carting 37,000 litres of petrol from Tema to Debiso in the Western Region, skidded off the road at Asempanaye, ran into a tree and exploded. The deceased, who got trapped in the tanker, got burnt together with the vehicle and its content. A third person on board the tanker, who managed to jump out of the moving tanker earlier and sustained some bruises on the body, identified the driver as Ato Nyarko, 32, from Mankessim, and his mate, Kwabena Moses, 29. The charred bodies have been deposited at the Saint John of God Hospital at Sefwi- Asafo for autopsy. Yaw Appiah, the survivor, said the fuel belonged to Mr. Kwaku Kwayie, the manager of the Star Oil Filling Station at Debiso. He said on reaching the outskirts of Asempanaye, which was a few minutes’ drive from their destination; the driver suspected a fault in the vehicle and asked him to check it while it was still in motion because the brakes were failing. According to him, le saw the fault but could not repair it and so the driver asked him to jump off the tanker because the probability of they having an accident was high. He said he did so and sustained some bruises on the body and after a few seconds the accident occurred. According to him, the brakes and gears of the tanker suddenly became faulty but the driver managed to descend a hill at Asempanaye, and tried negotiating a curve when the vehicle suddenly skidded off the road and hit the tree, leading to the explosion. Kofi Antwi Graphic