Oil tanker overturns on Mehran Highway

NAWABSHAH: A private company’s oil tanker overturned on Mehran Highway Sunday afternoon.

The tanker – that departed from Karachi – swerved and overturned after the driver tried to stop the vehicle to avoid collision with a donkey cart and motorcycle.

Police and Rangers personnel immediately cordoned off the incident’s site.

The vehicle’s driver and cleaner were unharmed and no casualties were reported, the police said.

At least eight similar incidents involving oil tankers have been reported so far in July with the most dangerous happening on July 1 when an oil tanker caught fire after it overturned near Qazi Ahmed town on the National Highway on Saturday.

Fire brigade managed to control the blaze soon after the incident happened. 

On June 25, at least 217 people lost their lives and 61 were injured after an oil tanker skidded off the National Highway and caught fire in Ahmedpur East.  

After the fuel tanker crashed and started leaking on the side of a highway, hundreds of people from a nearby village rushed to the scene to collect the fuel. They were engulfed in flames when the spill ignited.

The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) held a private company responsible for the accident. The company — on July 11 — agreed to pay a fine of about Rs257 million rupees in compensation for the Ahmedpur East tanker truck explosion.