MEXICO CITY — Mexican investigators had been working to find out the reason for a crash wherein a tanker truck carrying greater than 13,000 gallons (49,500 liters) of gasoline exploded on a serious freeway within the capital, killing at the least 4 folks and injuring 90.
The fiery crash Wednesday that burned greater than two-dozen automobiles created a ugly scene of badly burned survivors staggering on the street in tattered clothes as first responders rushed to the scene. The injured suffered second- and third-degree burns.
The tragedy drew renewed consideration to the hundreds of vehicles that rumble by way of Mexico day by day carrying liquid propane, which most properties and companies depend on for cooking and heating water. Regulators stated a preliminary evaluate revealed the truck didn’t have up-to-date insurance coverage permitting it to move gasoline.
Whereas Wednesday’s accident concerned a big tanker, relatively than the smaller ones that make residential deliveries, each have been concerned in lethal crashes over the previous decade.
In 2020, a double tanker carrying liquid propane flipped on a freeway within the western state of Nayarit and killed 13 folks when the fireplace unfold to different automobiles.
In 2015, a leak on a smaller propane truck making a supply at a Mexico Metropolis maternity hospital allowed gasoline to leak into the constructing and blow most of it up, killing 5 and injuring dozens.
“It is a horrible accident,” Mexico Metropolis Mayor Clara Brugada stated on the web site of the explosion Wednesday evening.
Lists of the injured confirmed that some suffered burns over 100% of their our bodies. Amongst these injured had been a child and a 2-year-old little one.
As emergency automobiles sped by and medics attended to the injured, teams of neighbors ran helped pull burn victims from the fireplace and get them to security.
The crash occurred on the freeway connecting Mexico Metropolis with Puebla and within the capital’s most populous borough Iztapalapa.
The gasoline tanker laying on its facet had the emblem of the power enterprise Silza on its facet, however in a name with The Related Press an organization official who didn’t need to be recognized denied it was their car. The corporate didn’t instantly reply to an e mail requesting for remark or extra particulars.
Later Wednesday, the federal company charged with regulating industrial security within the hydrocarbon sector stated in an announcement that Silza didn’t have up to date insurance coverage paperwork required to move gasoline.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed her condolences to households of those that died in a put up on X and thanked emergency groups for his or her work.
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AP journalists Fabiola Sánchez and María Verza contributed to this report.
