Awareness among tanker drivers and public is key to averting such mishaps.
Picture of a gas tanker that had turned turtle in Kozhikode.
KOZHIKODE: Accidents involving tanker lorries is a recurring phenomenon in the district. On March 2014, a tanker lorry overturned at West Hill bypass road killing an auto driver and keeping the city on high alert for almost a day and forcing the evacuation of residents.
One month after that incident, another lorry carrying LPG overturned at Valancherry on the National Highway. In September this year, one more tanker overturned at Vadakara after hitting another lorry.
In the latest incident, a tanker lorry halted on the West Hill bypass road at night after malfunctioning without erecting any danger signals, posing a safety threat. A resident informed the police control room and averted a possible accident by putting alert signs.
Though the district now has an emergency response vehicle and has implemented standard procedure for tanker lorries to reduce accidents, the latest incident shows that these are not enough. Awareness among the people and tanker drivers is needed to avoid such accidents.
“The tanker drivers are not even bothered to fix a reflector when the tanker is stopped at some place at night. Such simple precautions could avoid further accidents,” opined M.P. Keshavan, secretary, West Hill Chungam Residential Association.
“There were dozens of accidents during the last three- four years on West Hill road and the majority involved trucks, including bullet tankers,” he said. District Collector N. Prasanth said that pipelines are the best way to reduce tanker mishaps.
“At present we have an EVM at Chelari for refilling and they strictly following standard procedures. There is non-cooperation from some people for installing pipelines,” the collector said.
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( Source : deccan chronicle )
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