An oil tanker carrying thousands of litres palm oil overturned near Qazi Ahmed in Nawabshah district on Saturday. After the incident, oil spilled out of the overturned tanker at the National Highway. The tanker was carrying thousands of litres palm oil cargo from Karachi to upcountry. Police and fire brigade vehicles have reached to the place of incident. A track of the highway has been closed and relief work has been initiated, local officials said.
Recently this month, a Sahiwal bound tanker carrying 44,000 litres of furnace oil from Karachi had overturned near Karimabad, also in Nawabshah district.
The motorway police and emergency relief agencies reached to the spot and initiated relief operation. Due to lack of proper safety measures, the vehicles transporting combustible cargo could become lethal in case of an accident thus causing huge losses of life and property.
An oil tanker carrying thousands of litres of fuel exploded and caught fire after overturning on Gulbai Flyover in the Shershah area of Karachi recently. Fire spread to the nearby vehicles and godown. The blaze caused by the oil spill from the tanker which later burst into pieces. Two godowns, one container and five motorcycles were damaged in the blaze.
In June 2017, at least 140 people were killed and more than 100 others injured when an oil tanker caught fire after overturning on National Highway near Ahmedpur Sharqia (East) in Bahawalpur.
After the deadly incident the Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) announced safety rules for the oil tankers, which were vehemently resisted by the oil tanker owners' body leaving the safety issue for thousands of tankers transporting oil cargo from Karachi to upcountry to back-burner.