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An extremely painful and heart-wrenching road accident has come to light in the Kurdistan province of western Iran on Saturday, where a huge fuel (oil) tanker running on the highway suffered a massive explosion after a massive collision. According to official information released by government news agency IRIB and local disaster management authorities, at least 11 people died on the spot in this horrific accident, while 7 others were seriously injured. The accident occurred on the busy Hamadan-Sanandaj interstate highway connecting Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan province, to Hamadan province. According to eyewitnesses, the sound of the explosion was so powerful that its echo was heard several kilometers away and huge plumes of black smoke and flames were seen rising hundreds of feet into the sky. The flammable fuel leaking from the oil tanker flowed on the highway and created such a huge river of fire that other drivers driving nearby did not even get a chance to recover or escape.
A preliminary technical investigation conducted by the Provincial Governor of Sanandaz and the local transport police has revealed the main cause of the accident. According to officials, the oil tanker was carrying a large quantity of petroleum fuel from Hamdan to the city of Mariwan. On a sharp slope and turn of the highway, suddenly there was a serious technical fault in the braking system of the tanker, due to which the driver completely lost control of the heavy vehicle. The tanker, running out of control at high speed, overturned on the road after colliding with the vehicles moving ahead. As soon as it overturned, the huge compartment of the tanker burst and thousands of liters of petrol/diesel filled in it caught fire as soon as it came in contact with the spark emanating from the friction.
Babak Hodai, head of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) of the Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, said that the flames emanating from the explosion of the tanker engulfed many private cars and vehicles passing nearby on the highway. Passengers traveling in many vehicles did not even get time to open the doors and were trapped alive inside the vehicle. Within no time, many four-wheelers were completely burnt and turned into iron skeletons.
As soon as information about the accident was received, dozens of emergency rescue teams from Iranian Red Crescent Society, Fire Department and Sanandaj Medical College immediately reached the spot with ambulances and fire tenders. Due to the intensity of the fire and the poisonous gases rising from the burning of chemicals, rescue workers initially faced great difficulty in getting close to the debris. Fire brigades completely brought the raging flames under control after several hours of intense fighting using foam and heavy water cannons.
After the fire was extinguished, rescue workers pulled out 11 bodies from among the shredded metal of the burnt vehicles. Most of the bodies were badly burnt, due to which forensic DNA testing is being done to identify them. All 7 seriously burnt injured have been immediately admitted to the Main Trauma and Burn Specialty Hospital of Sanandaj after first aid, where the condition of 3 injured is said to be very critical. Due to the rescue operation and removal of debris, several kilometer long queues of vehicles remained on the Hamdan-Sanandaz highway for hours, which was later cleared with the help of cranes.
This latest heart-wrenching accident has revived in the minds of the local citizens and the people of Iran the memories of that dreadful scene of the year 2018, when a similar heart-wrenching accident took place on the same route. In the year 2018, an uncontrolled fuel tanker hit a bus full of passengers on the same highway in Sanandaj, following which at least 13 innocent passengers were burnt alive in the explosion and fire.
This hilly and winding highway in Kurdistan Province is considered a major corridor for the movement of heavy petroleum and commercial trucks. Local social activists and transport unions have repeatedly raised the issue of dangerous turns, steep slopes and absence of special safety lanes for heavy vehicles on this route. After this latest accident, there is deep anger among the local people regarding the highway infrastructure and administrative negligence in regular fitness check of heavy vehicles.
Considering the seriousness of the accident, ‘National Oil Products Distribution Company of Iran’ (NIOPDC) has issued a statement intervening in the matter. The company said that although preliminary reports suggest brake failure as the cause of the accident, it should not be considered as a final conclusion. A high level expert technical committee has been constituted to thoroughly investigate the ownership of the tanker, its maintenance records, transport permit and the speed limit of the driver at the time of the accident.
The rate of road accidents in Iran has been high compared to international standards, the main reasons behind which are considered to be the old vehicle fleet, poor road design in the mountains and technical shortcomings. Following the accident, the Western Province Traffic Police Headquarters has announced strict speed limits for all heavy petroleum and gas tankers, mandatory brake inspection and special safety guidelines in dangerous gorges at night.