Tanker oil spill jams E-way

Traffic was jammed for over 12 hours on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway on Sunday after an oil tanker spilt oil along the Expressway following an accident. The spill took place after a container lorry rammed into the Pune-bound tanker early Sunday morning.

It took the highway traffic police over five hours to clean up the spilled oil by using sand to soak up the mess.

The spill took place around 2.30 am on the Pune-bound lane of the Expressway, between Lonavala and Khandala. The tanker was being driven near Amrutanjan bridge when a container lorry crashed into the tanker from behind. The impact was serious enough to cause a leak in the tanker. The driver of the container fled the spot after the incident.

Highway traffic officials arrived at the spot after being informed by the tanker’s driver.

“Almost all the oil in the tanker spilled on the road. We reached the spot soon after the incident. Till 1 pm traffic was jammed but after 1.30 pm police officials started diverting traffic and within two hours the jam was cleared,” a highway traffic official said. No one was injured in the accident. Traffic police officials reached the spot with the fire brigade at 4 am and teams started their work.

Meanwhile, three men lost their lives later on Sunday morning when they lost control of the car they were travelling in and crashed against the concrete divider on the Expressway. The accident was not caused by the oil spill.

The accident took place around 5 am near Kamshet tunnel.

A traffic control official said, “The three were travelling in a Honda car and were going from Mumbai to Pune. The driver of the vehicle may have fallen asleep, due to which he could not see the speed breaker and he rammed the car over it. The car came to a stop after he broke the cement concrete divider on other side. They were all killed on the spot.”

“Amol Solebhavikar (29), Santosh Udvant (32) and Sharad Pawar (35) were declared dead after officials sent them to hospital. The police registered an accidental death report and handed over the bodies to their families,” he added.