Two people were killed and four were injured in a pre-dawn chain-reaction crash on a highway involving a tanker truck running with a considerable amount of fuel, a cargo truck, a passenger car, and others.
At about 3:12 a.m. on the 17th, near the Sinnyeong IC of the Sangju-Yeongcheon Expressway in Hwanam-ri, Sinnyeong-myeon, Yeongcheon, North Gyeongsang (at the 63.7 km point), a 26-ton tanker lorry (loaded with 24,000 liters of bunker C oil) traveling toward Sangju in the first lane collided with the left cargo bed of a 25-ton cargo truck that was traveling in the second lane.
Afterward, a 14-ton cargo truck crashed into the rear of the crashed tanker lorry, and eight additional vehicles following behind, including a 2.5-ton cargo truck, a passenger car, and a bus, were involved in successive collisions.
The crash sparked fires in three vehicles: the tanker lorry and two cargo trucks of 14 tons and 2.5 tons.
Police said that about 20 passengers on the bus were not injured.
Also, at the time of the chain-reaction crash toward Sangju, several H-beams loaded on one of the crashed cargo trucks fell toward the opposite Yeongcheon-bound direction, and as vehicles tried to avoid them, three vehicles—a passenger car, a tanker lorry, and a 13-ton cargo truck—subsequently crashed into a retaining wall, a guardrail, and other structures.
As of now, due to the crash, two people—the driver of the 2.5-ton cargo truck heading toward Sangju and the driver of a passenger car traveling in the opposite direction—were killed, and four were injured, it was found.
Fires in the three crashed vehicles, including the tanker lorry, were all extinguished at about 5:40 a.m.
Currently, traffic in both directions near the crash site on the Sangju-Yeongcheon Expressway is fully controlled for crash response and related reasons.
According to police, congestion continues for 5 km from Donggunwi IC toward Yeongcheon (Busan-bound) and for 3.9 km from Busan toward Sangju.
The point where the crash occurred is a bridge 25 meters high, and oil from the tanker truck fell below.
Oil that flowed down from the highway ran into nearby rice field waterways, filling the area's channels with black oil.
Yeongcheon City Hall officials are conducting waterway protection work using oil booms and absorbents.
A police official said, "It appears the tanker lorry driver who caused the crash was not driving under the influence, and the cargo loaded on the tanker lorry is bunker C oil, so there is no risk of explosion," adding, "We need to further determine the exact cause of the crash and the number of injured."