ROAD INFERNO TAKES 12 LIVES

BLAZE | Truck rams into LPG carrier; 35 hurt, seven critical; 37 vehicles are gutted

- Manish Godha

Twelve persons died and as many as 35 more were injured, many seriously, when a tanker carrying LPG and a truck collided on the busy Jaipur-Ajmer highway early on Friday morning. The ensuing explosion resulted in a massive fireball that engulfed 37 vehicles, including a sleeper bus carrying 34 passengers.

At the crack of dawn (5.30am), the LPG tanker, en route from Ajmer to Jaipur, was taking a U-turn when a truck coming from the opposite direction rammed into it turning the highway stretch into a blazing inferno.

Jaipur Police Commissioner Biju George Joseph said that an outlet nozzle of the LPG tanker was damaged in the collision, leading to gas leak that caused the blaze.

As gas spread quickly in the early morning winter air, vehicles behind the tanker as well as those coming from the opposite direction caught fire. Of the 34 passengers in the sleeper bus, which was scheduled to reach its destination. Jaipur, in about an hour, 20 suffered burn injuries.