LPG tanker overturns on Coimbatore flyover in TN, officials avert major tragedy

Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu): A Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) tanker overturned on the arterial Avinashi Road flyover here in the wee hours on Friday, leading to a minor gas leak, Coimbatore district collector Kranthi Kumar Pati said.

The tanker capsized after it got detached from the truck when the driver was negotiating the flyover’s roundabout. No one was injured, he said.

Traffic came to a transient halt in the central part of the city due to the accident. Schools located about 500 meters to one km radius of the accident spot were asked to close for the day as a precaution.

Immediately after the truck driver informed about the mishap, police arrived at the spot and halted the traffic around and prevented a major accident, the collector told reporters here.

The fire service and rescue personnel sprayed water on the tanker which was carrying 18 tonne of LPG to a bottling plant owned by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) at Ganapathy in Coimbatore from Kerala’s Kochi.

“Since the tanker was loaded with LPG, it could not be uplifted immediately. Our top priority was to arrest the leak,” Pati said.

Officials from the BPCL, IOCL, and industries safety officials and technical experts arrived at the location and arrested the leak.

Currently, efforts are on to shift the gas through an emergency rescue vehicle, he said, and added that there was no need for people to panic.

“Steps are also on to repair the damaged coupling plate and re-attach the tanker,” the collector said.