COIMBATORE: An LPG-filled tanker detached from a truck on the old flyover on Avinashi Road in the early hours of Friday. Triggering a 100kg LPG leak. The breach was arrested after nearly six hours, and the tanker was cleared from the spot after a 12-hour operation.
While nearly 40 schools in the vicinity were shut for the day, the accident caused traffic disarray in the city. The incident comes just days after an LPG tanker collided with a truck on the Jaipur-Ajmer highway in Rajasthan on December 28, sparking a massive fireball that killed at least 20 people.
The tanker, carrying 18 metric tonnes of LPG from Kochi, got detached from the truck around 2:30 am due to damage to the coupling plate when the vehicle took a turn on the roundabout of the flyover. The tanker fell from the trailer and landed on its side, causing gas leakage due to damage to its pressure cage.
After nearly 12 hours, rescue teams managed to seal the breach and transfer the tanker to the BPCL bottling unit near Ganapathi with the help of huge cranes. Multiple fire tenders were pressed into service, and as a precautionary measure, public entry was restricted within a 250-meter radius of the accident spot. All routes to the flyover were closed until the afternoon, and traffic was redirected at multiple places in the city. Nearly 40 schools located within a 1 km radius of the spot were asked to declare a holiday for the day to ensure the safety of students.
Additionally, commercial establishments were asked to remain shut, and power supply was cut until the completion of the rescue operation. The tanker, which was on its way from Kochi to Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited's LPG bottling plant at Ganapathi in Coimbatore, was driven by Radhakrishnan (29) from Sivaramapettai in Tenkasi district.
After spotting the leak, Radhakrishnan alerted the police and fire and rescue services personnel. Immediately, police sealed off the flyover and adjacent underpasses by setting up barricades to divert traffic. Fire and rescue services personnel, using five fire tenders and eight private water tankers, sprayed water on the tanker to mitigate potential hazards due to the gas leakage, sources said.
BPCL officials and technical experts sealed the breach around 7:30 am. Steps were also taken to bring an alternative coupling plate through rescue vehicles from Salem and Tiruchy. Firefighters, who examined the concentration of gas in the air using a Gas Monitoring System (GMS), declared the situation to be under control. "BPCL engineers fixed the leakage using softwood in the pressure gauge with a brass hammer and sealed the leakage area with a fast steel epoxy stick through a cold welding process. Around 100kg of LPG leaked from the tanker," said an engineer from the expert team.
Coimbatore Collector Kranthi Kumar Pati, Police Commissioner A Saravana Sundar, and other officials oversaw the rescue operation. Collector Kranthi Kumar Pati said that after fixing the defect in the joining panel of the tanker, it was placed on another truck with the support of an emergency rescue vehicle brought from Salem. "The tanker was safely shifted to the BPCL bottling unit without any major issues," he added.
After sealing the leakage, the rescue team shifted the tanker to the BPCL bottling unit with the help of another truck at 2 pm. According to driver Radhakrishnan, the vehicle was moving at a speed of just 10 km/h, but the sharp bend near the roundabout at the top of the flyover led to the accident.
The highways department immediately deployed cranes from a construction site capable of handling 35 tonnes of weight to move the tanker. Several volunteers also worked with the administration to avert a major disaster. The Coimbatore City Police have booked truck driver Radhakrishnan under various sections, and further investigation is ongoing.