Oil tanker overturns at Native Jetty bridge

Police blame the driver for being sleepy and unable to control vehicle while turning.


Fawad Shah November 01, 2010

KARACHI: An Afghanistan-bound oil tanker turned over at the Native Jetty bridge early Sunday morning.

The tanker was carrying oil for Nato troops in Kabul, police officials said. According to the police, the incident was the driver’s fault. “It seems like the driver was sleepy and so he could not control the vehicle when he was turning,” said SHO Chaudhry Irshad.

Because the tanker overturned, the police had to block Native Jetty road leading to Sultanabad and Clifton.

The vehicle, bearing the licence plate No. PRZ-5859, was carrying 24,000 litres of oil, according to the All Pakistan Oil Tankers Owners Association.

At the time of the incident, four to five police officials were standing in the area, described SHO Irshad. The oil spilled from the top of the Native Jetty bridge to Bahria School located at around 500 metres away from the site.

Witnesses and people living in the neighbouring areas started scrambling to collect and store the oil in cans and drums or whatever utensils they could find. Some even left the area in their cars and came back with larger vessels to collect the spilled oil. Children and women also joined in. Most of them soon left with the oil on their donkey carts and bicycles.

“Even if we don’t take it home, it is useless for the owners. So we should take advantage of it,” Rabia, 35, told The Express Tribune.

“My brother has a bike and so he can use it,” said 16-year-old Irfan Khan. “It will not only be helpful for us but also for the police. They cannot clean the road alone,” he added. When the rescue workers and police officials reached, the people had completed a major part of their job - they had cleaned the mess.

The police then cordoned off the area to avoid accidents. The road was opened after three hours of rescue work.

The police arrested the driver, Musharraf, son of Mukarram, and lodged FIR No. 593 /10 against him.

Dr Ghulam Akbar, WWF Pakistan director, said, “The good thing is that the oil did not enter the water that flows nearby [in China Creek]. It would have been really disastrous then.” He said that the oil would have spread to the nearby areas through vehicles that passed through the site and could cause a major fire. “The neighbourhood will suffer from the oil fumes for the next few days,” said Dr Akbar.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1st, 2010.

COMMENTS (1)

Prince Shahryar Rana | 13 years ago | Reply Where are the environmental experts. People cleaned the mess ? What is that Cheap national Character ? Police Always Reach LATE.ER? why not against who allowed to use such route for patrol trafficking ?
Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ