The driver of the ill-fated fuel truck that went up in flames in Riyadh earlier this month said he did not know whether the maintenance work of the truck that carried extremely dangerous material was properly carried out.

“I do not know if the vehicle had been properly maintained,” Robin Kebeng, the Filipino driver told a local Arabic daily, narrating the circumstances that led to the tragic accident.

Twenty-two people were killed and more than a hundred injured in the explosion of the truck after it hit the cement railing of an overpass at the busy Khurais road in Riyadh on Nov. 1.

The driver said he received a fully loaded truck of inflammable substance from the company warehouse and was only expected to take it to its destination.

Kebeng said he could not have averted the calamity as the speeding truck went out of control when taking a curve, shortly before it hit the bridge railing.

“I strove my best to decrease the speed at the bend, but the brakes did not respond and the truck went out of my control,” Kebeng said. 

He could have fallen asleep at the wheel, shortly before the accident occurred, and was unaware of the actual speed shown on the speedometer, he said.

He remembered that the time of the accident was around 7.25 a.m.

“Although I was carrying hazardous material in my truck, it never occurred to me that an accident of this magnitude would occur,” he added. “I know that a number of people were killed. But I am just a human being and I never imagined that I would be the cause of such a huge tragedy,” he answered, when asked if he was remorseful for what happened.

When asked if he attempted to flee from the scene of accident, he replied that he was injured and the police took him to hospital after he was arrested.

He said he arrived in the Kingdom a year ago and had been driving trucks since, but did not indicate whether he had any past experience in transporting highly inflammable substances.

Though Kebeng is an employee of the gas company, he is not under its sponsorship.

In a related development, the gas company for which the driver worked denied a report attributed to its director general that the company would take responsibility for the material losses resulting from the accident. The company clarified that what the director general said was that those who suffered losses should contact the committee that has been set up to assess the losses, and they will determine the compensation amount.