The gas tanker tragedies at Karunagappally and Chala still fresh in their minds, the residents of Maradu and Kundannur in Kochi pressed the panic button when a bullet tanker carrying liquefied petrol gas (LPG) overturned near here late on Wednesday.
The bullet tanker, on its way to Paripally in Kollam from an LPG supply centre in the city, overturned at Kundannur at around 9.45 pm, causing panic among the residents and stirring the authorities to rush to the spot and take precaution to avert a major causality.
The police cordoned off the area soon after the accident and the traffic along the Kundannur-Pettah road was closed to facilitate salvage operation.
Soon, a technical team from Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) led by Deputy General Manager Satish Kumar reached the spot and the tanker that was transporting 40 tonnes of Liquefied Petroleum Gas to Indane bottling plant at Paripally, was subjected to detailed examination to ensure that there was no leakage.
Alongside, officials of the district administration led by Collector M.G. Rajamanickam and the fire brigade also rushed to the spot.
The police said the accident occurred when the tanker driver applied the breaks and swerved the vehicle to avoid ramming into a Tata Nano car parked on the road side, which had started entering the road on reverse gear. The heavy vehicles’ cabin crashed into an electric post.
Driver diesThe driver, Radhakrishnan of Cherthala, was killed on the spot though no other causalities were reported.
Following the accident, several local residents fled for safer areas and they came back only after they were convinced that there was no leakage of LPG.
Commenting on the rescue operations, a top IOC official said the truck was lifted from the ground using a crane after shifting a part of the LPG load to another tanker.
“The truck was pulled back on its wheels a couple of hours into the operation, which started around 2 a.m. The entire product was then transferred to the empty tankers, requisitioned from Kochi,” he said.
The police sprang to emergency mode by disconnecting electricity in the area and diverting traffic. Only four-to five families, who live on the vicinity of the accident site, were evacuated and road was opened for one-way traffic around 12 noon on Thursday. The traffic police launched a probe into the incident
“An engineering team is already on their way to the accident site from Namakkal to repair the damaged vehicle, after which it will be taken out from the spot. The full scale-restoration of traffic along the road is expected by Thursday midnight or next day morning,” said R. Nishanthini, Deputy Commissioner of Police.
Meanwhile, the closure of the Pettah-Kundannur Road resulted in severe traffic congestion along NH 47 and nearby areas such as Tripunithura, Pettah and Vyttila. As vehicles from Kundannur junction have been diverted through Pettah, the Tripunithura–Vyttila road witnessed long queue of vehicles. Because of the gridlock, office goers and students could not reach their destinations on time.
