A bullet tanker loaded with 18 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) lost control and fell on its side while passing through the National Highway at Haripad in Alappuzha district at 3 a.m. on Wednesday.
The police said the accident occurred while the tanker reached R.K. Junction.
A major disaster was averted as the contents did not leak. Driver of the tanker Manikandan, 27, and his helper Easwar, 26, both natives of Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu, escaped with minor injuries. The tanker with the load from Tuticorin was on its way to a private LPG filling plant at Erattupetta, near Kottayam.
By 8 a.m. authorised technicians who reached the site began siphoning off the contents in the tanker to another bullet tanker brought from the Indane bottling plant at Paripally here.
Even by 5.30 p.m. on Wednesday, the filling job was not completed.
