In a tragic incident, the driver of a truck carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders caught fire near a fuel centre at Narayanpur on NH-31 near Bihar in the early hours on Wednesday.
The sound of explosions was heard for several kilometers from the spot with the traffic on NH-31 remaining disrupted for hours after the incident, police said.
The sub divisional police officer (SDPO) Dilip Kumar said, “Prima facie it appears that the truck carrying LPG cylinders hit the truck going ahead due to poor visibility and later caught fire”.
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“There were 450 cylinders loaded in the truck and the explosion was heard 25 kilometers from the spot”, he said.
Confirming the death of the driver, SDPO said, “The body of the driver will be handed over to the family after postmortem.”
He said the explosions continued for over an hour resulting in a long traffic jams.
The deceased driver has been identified as Mantu Yadav, a resident of Shankarpur village of Bihar’s Munger district.
He said 4-5 fire tenders were rushed to the spot to douse the flames and it took around 2-3 hours to contain the fire.
He, however said the vehicular activities on NH-31 became normal after a few hours.
“But the explosions were so intense that the highway was damaged at the site” he said.
