Oil tanker crashes + poverty = disaster

When oil tankers crash in poor countries, people often rush to the scene to gather the spilt fuel, often with lethal results. That happened again this week after a tanker crashed on the outskirts of the city of Bahawalpur in Pakistan on Sunday.

It is reported that the vehicle overturned on a sharp bend after the driver lost control when a tyre blew. A crowd of 500 had gathered to try to collect fuel in bottles, cans and household containers when, about 45 minutes after the crash, the tanker exploded.

It took firefighters two hours to put out the blaze. Twenty children were among the 146 dead, and another 80 people were injured. One local man said he had lost 12 relatives.

Probably the deadliest tanker crash ever happened on 2 July 2010 at Sange village in South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The vehicle overturned as it was overtaking a bus on a dirt road. Again local people rushed to collect the spilt fuel, and a lighted cigarette caused an explosion, killing at least 230.

For the story, see my post of 7 July 2010. See also my posts of 1 February and 12 October, 2009, and 13 July 2012.

Ghana: One of history's deadliest bus crashes

This week’s bus crash in Ghana was one of the deadliest in history. 71 people were killed, and another 13 seriously injured, when a coach collided head-on with a lorry carrying tomatoes near the town of Kintampo, about 260 miles from the capital, Accra.

It was travelling from the country’s second city Kumasi to the northern town of Tamale. Investigators have said the bus was overloaded. It should have been carrying only 63 passengers. 

A survivor reportedly told police that the vehicle had brake problems. Another alleged the driver had been going too fast, and that he had ignored pleas to slow down.

Rescue workers had to use chainsaws to try to get to people trapped in the wreckage. There was anger about graphic images of the accident that were posed on social media, while Ghana’s president, John Mahama, went on to Twitter to offer his condolences. (See also my blogs of 5 January and 23 February 2010 and 9 February 2013.)

Nigeria - another deadly tanker crash

More than 100 people are believed to have been killed after a petrol tanker crashed near the village of Okogbe in southern Nigeria.    Many of the victims are thought to have rushed to the scene to try to collect fuel that had spilled onto the road.

The tanker is reported to have collided with three other vehicles, but it did not burst into flames immediately.    By the time it exploded, it was surrounded by people.  The authorities say that 95 bodies have been recovered so far, but it is believed that many more have died.

Nigeria has been the scene of a number of disastrous tanker crashes.   Back in 2000, a tanker that had been poorly maintained careered into a traffic jam on the motorway from Ife to Ibadan. It exploded in a huge fireball, destroying more than 100 vehicles and killing up to 200 people.   

Then in 2009, at least 70 people were killed when a tanker overturned and exploded as the driver tried to negotiate deep potholes on the Enugu-Onitsha highway.  Perhaps the deadliest tanker fire of all came at Sange in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2010 when a tanker overturned as it overtook a bus, and 230 people were killed.  

*A new reivew of my book Historia Mundial de los Desastres -
http://libros-san-francisco.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/libro-historia-mundial-de-los-desastres.html

The worst ever tanker accident?

Apologies for my silence. I’ve been away for a few weeks, and during my absence, that unhappy country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, fell victim to one of the deadliest road accidents the world has ever seen - on Friday, 2 July.

An oil tanker overturned as it was overtaking a bus on a dirt road in the village of Sange, close to the border with Burundi. The authorities say that as local people rushed to try to gather the leaking fuel, a lighted cigarette caused it to explode.

At least 230 people were killed, including some watching a World Cup match in a nearby cinema. Roads in the area are notoriously bad after years of war and chaos, while Sange’s population has been swelled by people fleeing the fearsome Lord’s Resistance Army militia.

This may have been the worst ever accident involving a tanker. In 1978, 217 people perished when one carrying liquid propylene overturned near a campsite at Los Alfaques near Taragona in Spain, while in 2000, up to 200 died after a petrol tanker ploughed into stationery vehicles caught in a traffic jam near Ibadan in Nigeria.

Peruvian bus crashes - 2

At least 38 people have been killed in another serious bus crash in Peru. Two buses collided head-on on the Panamerican highway, one of Peru’s busiest roads, about 300 miles north of Lima.

Bus crashes are common in Peru. Less than a fortnight ago, 17 people died when two buses collided in Quispicanchi province in the south of the country, and in December a bus plunged down a ravine in the Andes killing 42. (see my blog of Dec 29) The country has now secured a loan of £100 million from the World Bank to improve its roads.

Internationally comparable figures on road deaths are hard to come by, but they suggest that most of the countries with the most dangerous roads are in Africa. Eritrea has an annual rate of 48.4 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, Egypt 41.6, Libya 40.5, Angola and Niger 37.7, the Gambia 36.6 and Mauritania 35.5. Afghanistan has a rate of 39, Iraq 38.1 and Iran 35.8.

In this company, Peru’s 21.5 seems fairly modest, though the UK’s rate is just 5.4, and the Netherlands 4.8. (see also my blog of Jan 5)

Avalanches

At least 38 people have been killed by an avalanche that buried a village in the remote Kohistan district in north-west Pakistan. Avalanches are common in the area, and heavy snow over the last fortnight has increased the danger.

Earlier this month, a series of avalanches struck the approach to the Salang tunnel in Afghanistan, burying more than two miles of road and killing at least 172 people. The Salang tunnel was the scene of a disastrous road crash in 1982 which cost the lives of up to 2,000 people. For more details, see A Disastrous History of the World.

The deadliest natural avalanche ever was probably the one that buried the town of Plurs in Switzerland in 1618, killing more than 2,400, but during World War One in the Tyrol, the Italian and Austrian armies each deliberately set off avalanches with explosives, and during one period of 48 hours, 10,000 soldiers were killed.

I mentioned in my blog of Feb 6 that my world disasters book has now been published in the United States as Disaster! My thanks to The Southern in Illinois which has written articles on the book:-

http://www.thesouthern.com/news/local/article_70ddf2ee-1ab6-11df-a631-001cc4c03286.html
http://www.thesouthern.com/news/local/article_6014bbfe-1a4e-11df-b826-001cc4c03286.html

Terrorism v road accidents

So as I exclusively predicted – well not exactly exclusively – the suspected war criminal Tony Blair ran rings around the Labour stooges whose unhappy task it is to exonerate him and all others responsible for the Iraq disaster. (See my blog of Jan 28)

Now here’s a real exclusive, though. You remember that Labour raised the terror alert for the UK a few days ago to “severe”. Well I can reveal they are now going to raise the ROADS ALERT to “very, very tremendously severe - in fact, totally scary”.

The reason is that government statisticians have discovered that while 56 civilians have died in terrorist attacks in the UK over the last four years, the number killed in road accidents is just short of 12,000! That means you are about 215 times more likely to be killed travelling on or crossing the roads than in a terrorist attack. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Btw – what is the terrorist alert level in “liberated” Iraq? Today, another 40 people were murdered – Shia pilgrims blown to bits by a woman who had hidden her suicide bomb under her long black gown.

Road accidents - Bangladesh

Another country with dangerous roads is Bangladesh. On New Year’s Day, at least 18 people were killed when a bus skidded off the road and plunged into a ditch in dense fog at Kanaipur in the south-west of the country.

Early last month, near the same town, at least 20 people died when two buses collided head-on, and in December 2008, 24 perished when the lorry in which they were travelling veered off the road, again in thick fog. The accident happened at Tangail, about 40 miles north of the capital Dhaka.

Altogether, up to 5,000 people are killed every year in road accidents in Bangladesh. Poor roads and old, badly maintained vehicles are blamed for most crashes.

The Inter-American Development Bank once named the North Yungas Road, a 40 mile highway in Bolivia that leads from La Paz to Coroico, “the world’s most dangerous”. Also known as the “Road of Death”, it is said to see up to 300 travellers killed every year. (See also my blogs of Dec 20 and 29)

Another Nigerian road disaster

Nigeria has further underpinned its unenviable reputation for having some of the most dangerous roads in the world. (See also my blogs of Feb 1, Oct 12 and Nov 5.) Up to 100 people were killed when a runaway lorry ploughed into a crowded market in Kogi state.

Police say the driver appeared to lose control and the vehicle hurtled down a hill smashing cars before it crashed into the market. According to government officials, the lorry’s brakes failed. The state governor has declared three days of mourning.

Defective brakes were also a factor in what was probably Nigeria (and one of the world)’s worst road accidents when a tanker ploughed into stationary vehicles on a motorway in November 2000, killing up to 200.

Last week, 23 people were burned to death when a bus collided with a lorry in Oyo state.

Gunpowder, treason and plot + Nigeria road carnage

Today in the UK, we celebrate the failure of what nowadays would no doubt be called a terrorist attack – the attempt of Guy Fawkes and his fellow Roman Catholic conspirators to blow up the House of Commons in 1605. It will be interesting to see whether the recent disastrous decline in the reputation of MPs will lead to guys being burned or fireworks set off with any less enthusiasm.

It is not just that so many of our representatives seem to have been quite happy to rip off the people who elected them, it is also that so few seem to have been interested in doing their job. They have stood by as the Labour government has stripped us of our civil liberties, and they evidently do not bother to read most of the poorly drafted, ill thought out laws they pass under the instruction of the party whips.

For Nigeria, though, today is the anniversary of a disaster that DID happen. On November 5, 2000, one of the country’s perennial jams had brought traffic to a standstill on the Ife to Ibadan motorway. Then along came a rather decrepit petrol tanker which could not stop, and ploughed into the stationary vehicles.

Within seconds it blew up, and a huge fireball devastated the area. No one knows exactly how many people were killed, but it could be up to 200. Police were later accused of causing the original jam by setting up a roadblock so they could extort money from motorists, though major traffic accidents are nothing unusual in Nigeria. (see my blog of Oct 12)

Nigerian road disasters

A reminder over the weekend of how deadly the roads can be in Nigeria. At least 70people were killed when a fuel tanker overturned and exploded in the southern state of Anambra. The vehicle was reported to be trying to negotiate deep potholes on the Enugu-Onitsha highway when it toppled over, spilling its load across the road.

The fuel caught fire and set half a dozen packed minibuses blazing. A car is said to have crashed into the debris. A transport official warned that if major improvements were not made to the country’s road network, Nigeria could expect further tragedies.

Nearly nine years ago, in November 2000, a poorly maintained tanker careered into a traffic jam on the motorway from Ife to Ibadan. It exploded, sending a huge fireball up into the sky. More than 100 vehicles were destroyed, and up to 200 people were killed. It was the fourth deadly road accident in the country in just three months.

For the full story see A Disastrous History of the World.