TRIPUNITHURA:/KOCHI: Two tanker lorries, one loaded with highly inflammable diesel and the other with acid, collided right in the middle of the traffic island at the Kundannoor Junction on Saturday. The diesel tanker overturned in the collision and within moments the entire junction was flooded with diesel. Following this traffic was paralysed for more than two hours on the NH 47 bypass road. The fire fighters from Gandhinagar station and Panangad police arrived at the spot immediately and started containment operations. Foam was sprayed to neutralise the diesel spread across the junction. But even after the fire-engines sprayed water and foam compound the traffic could not be resumed. Some of the vehicles began skidding on to the road owing to the diesel. “We scattered around a load of sand onto the roads to prevent the skidding,” the traffic police said. The diesel tanker was headed to the Cochin Port. “It had a capacity of 12, 000 litres, of which about 5000 litres was spilled on to the roads,” Gandhinagar Firestation ACP P V Venukuttan said. Diesel tanker driver Manoharan and cleaner Vidyasagar were rescued from the vehicle and admitted to the Lakeshore Hospital. The driver and the cleaner of the acid tanker escaped after the collision. One of the two lorries would have violated the traffic signal, police said. The police have seized the vehicles.
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