KARACHI: A substantial quantity of cooking oil leaked onto Jinnah Bridge on Saturday morning when a trailer hit an oil tanker from behind, causing traffic to be halted on both lanes of the road, while people began collecting the spilled oil in drums, police and rescue officials said.

DIG Traffic Ahmed Nawaz Cheema said a trailer and an oil tanker were coming from Native Jetty Bridge towards Jinnah Bridge and both drivers were involved in reckless driving and were trying to cross each other when the trailer hit the oil tanker from behind, causing leakage from the oil tanker.

He said no one was injured in the incident, adding that some sealant was used to stop the oil leakage. However, the incident caused a traffic mess on the key artery, after which both the heavy vehicles were removed on one side. The accident occurred at around 6am while the road was cleared for traffic by 10:50am.

Meanwhile, a Rescue-1122 official told Dawn that their team arrived at the spot where they saw that the people were collecting cooking oil in drums. They called two water bowsers from Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation, which cleared the road for traffic after spreading water on it.

Both the drivers had been caught by traffic personnel and handed over to the police. They were identified as Raja Ali (trailer driver) and Mumtaz Khan (oil tanker driver).

DIG Cheema said they had got an FIR registered against both the drivers over charges of negligent driving.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2024