An 84-year-old woman, who was among the 14 persons critically injured when a bullet tanker toppled at Bargi village near Kumta in Uttara Kannada district on Tuesday, has died.
The bullet tanker loaded with liquefied petroleum gas toppled on National Highway 66 and exploded. The accident occurred when the driver of the tanker lost control over the vehicle. The gas from the tanker leaked and caught fire, leading to the explosion.
The injured persons were rushed in eight ambulances to the Kasturba Hospital here as it has a Burns Intensive Care Unit (ICU) facility. They included six men, six women, a four-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy.
Girish, Inspector of Manipal Police Station, told The Hindu that the woman, who died, was 84 years old.
But M. Dayananda, Medical Superintendent of Kasturba Hospital, said that the woman was brought dead to the hospital. The rest of the injuredwere receiving treatment at the Burns ICU of the hospital. “Of the 13 patients, seven are critical, while six are stable. The tanker driver, aged 22, who suffered a fracture on his leg, as a result of the fall, is also receiving treatment here,” he said.
“We got information from the Chief Minister’s Office at 8 a.m. asking us to prepare for the burns patients. Soon we got a call from the Industries Minister R.V. Deshpande to be ready for receiving 30 burns patients and we prepared for it. Some more patients are expected to be admitted here. Some other injured are being treated at a hospital in Kumta,” Dr. Dayananda said.
Chidananda Vatare, Assistant Commissioner, Bhatkal Sub-Division, said that he was coordinating the operations in Manipal. The post-mortem of the woman would be done at the Kasturba Hospital here.
He had contacted the State Coordinator of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), M.N. Rao, as the tanker belonged to that company. “National Highway 66 has heavy traffic of gas tankers. We need to have some Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for dealing with them. We need to coordinate between the three coastal districts on this issue. There was good coordination within the districts,” he said.
Meanwhile, Pramod Madhwaraj, Udupi MLA, who visited Kasturba Hospital, said: “First we received a call that 30 patients are expected. So, Kasturba Hospital prepared for it. We should have been told of the exact number of patients. This shows the lack of coordination.”
