Tanker truck with acid overturns

Fourteen road accidents on Willingdon Island-Kundanoor Road in six months! The latest in the line is the accident that took place in the wee hours of Thursday. A tanker lorry carrying acid crashed and overturned at the median, bearing yet another testimony to the deplorable condition of the stretch. 

The accident took place at 3 am when the tanker lorry carrying acid from Willingdon Island to FACT plant hit the median located just before the toll booth at UP bridge. Police said the accident occurred due to poor visibility and wrongly constructed toll booth. Fortunately there were no causalties.

The driver of the vehicle was rushed to a private hospital. The accident would have been more grievous had there been acid leak.

According to police, the road is mostly used by container and tanker lorries carrying inflammable acids and other petroleum products. “The PWD Department has constructed the road just for the namesake. There are no streetlights along the 5-km stretch from the Willingdon Island with no reflectors at sharp curves.

The road too is filled with potholes. Even though repair works were done in the city limits, this road was left untouched. At night the lorries move at high speed ending up in accidents,” police said.

Similarly, the toll booth at the UP bridge has been constructed without proper plan.

“Three medians have been constructed at the toll booth. Each of these is at a height of four feet making the vehicles susceptible to overturn in the event of even a minor crash. The lanes are very narrow through which a heavy vehicle can hardly pass. The toll booth has no lights and medians have no reflectors.

If a lorry stops for the toll collection with a bright light on, the driver of the vehicle coming from the opposite side will blinded by the light leading to a crash at the median,” police said.

A PWD official told ‘City Express’ that it has no plans to repair the road or make it safe.

“We have no information on repair work in the stretch. But we will send a proposal considering the accidents taking place in this area,” the official said.