A view of the derailed containers (Photo: Chulthea, Koh Santepheap newspaper)
Local villagers came in drove to scoop up the spilled diesel, a welcome boon to their poor and meager living condition and also a free cleanup for Sokimex (Photo: Chulthea, Koh Santepheap newspaper)Train derailment causes 2 diesel containers to spill
Monday, October 29, 2007
Koh Santepheap newspaper
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Phnom Penh – A train hauling diesel fuel out of the Phnom Penh train station to the Sokimex stockpile in Russey Keo commune, Russey Keo district, derailed and three diesel containers overturned in the afternoon of 27 October. Several hundreds of local population came in drove to scoop up the spilled diesel. The derailment took place near Boeng Salang village, Russey Keo commune, Russey Keo district, when the train approached the Sokimex stockpile station. Nevertheless, it is sheer luck that the derailment did not cause any further accident to people living nearby the railroad tracks, and that only tens of thousands of liters of diesel fuel spilled out the broken containers causing several local people to come and scoop them in drove.
According to an eyewitness, when the train hauling the fuel container arrived near his house, the last fuel container derailed out of track and the wagons ahead of it kept on moving forward slowly. Then, another container overturned to the left, and the following container also derailed and overturned to the right. During the overturning, the container which fell to left broke apart and several tens of thousands of liters of diesel spilled out, the second container that overturned also had a spill from its opening. After the fuel container overturned from the tracks, and the fuel started to spill out, several hundreds of people came in drove to scoop up the spilled fuel in spite of the cops firing several shots to try to protect the fuel. The scavengers still went in to collect the fuel anyway claiming that if they do not scoop the fuel, it will be lost from the spill anyway. The scavengers said that even after there is no fuel left in the containers, some still tried to skim the fuel floating on water until night time. The next morning, on 28 October, several scavengers can still be seen trying to skim fuel out of water. It was reported that people came in to buy the collected fuel from the scavengers’ homes, the scavengers were paid almost 2,000 riels ($0.50) per liter or 1,000 riels ($0.25) per liter depending on the type of fuel collected.
An employee of Sokimex at the accident location, indicated that the cause of the accident was due to the bad condition and insecure railroad tracks, some of the tracks do not even touch the ground, and the tracks are too old, and some even fell apart. The Sokimex employee said that 16 fuel containers were hauled from Sihanoukville by rail to Phnom Penh, and 9 of the containers were hauled to the Sokimex stockpile at Russey Keo district. While traveling to the accident location, containers No. 5 and 6 derailed and overturned causing container No. 5, which contained 38,000 liters of diesel, to overturn to the left, and 30,000 liters of fuel was spilled. Container No. 6 which has a capacity of 48,000 liters, overturned to the right, and 3 to 4,000 liters of fuel was spilled.
The Sokimex employee said that it is sheer luck that it did not cause any human accident, and that only the Sokimex company sustained major loss. After the accident, Sokimex employees hauled the remaining containers to the company stockpile and brought in empty containers to pump fuel out of the overturned containers. In the morning of 28 October, Sokimex employees are still pumping fuel and tried to pull out the damaged containers.
According to an eyewitness, when the train hauling the fuel container arrived near his house, the last fuel container derailed out of track and the wagons ahead of it kept on moving forward slowly. Then, another container overturned to the left, and the following container also derailed and overturned to the right. During the overturning, the container which fell to left broke apart and several tens of thousands of liters of diesel spilled out, the second container that overturned also had a spill from its opening. After the fuel container overturned from the tracks, and the fuel started to spill out, several hundreds of people came in drove to scoop up the spilled fuel in spite of the cops firing several shots to try to protect the fuel. The scavengers still went in to collect the fuel anyway claiming that if they do not scoop the fuel, it will be lost from the spill anyway. The scavengers said that even after there is no fuel left in the containers, some still tried to skim the fuel floating on water until night time. The next morning, on 28 October, several scavengers can still be seen trying to skim fuel out of water. It was reported that people came in to buy the collected fuel from the scavengers’ homes, the scavengers were paid almost 2,000 riels ($0.50) per liter or 1,000 riels ($0.25) per liter depending on the type of fuel collected.
An employee of Sokimex at the accident location, indicated that the cause of the accident was due to the bad condition and insecure railroad tracks, some of the tracks do not even touch the ground, and the tracks are too old, and some even fell apart. The Sokimex employee said that 16 fuel containers were hauled from Sihanoukville by rail to Phnom Penh, and 9 of the containers were hauled to the Sokimex stockpile at Russey Keo district. While traveling to the accident location, containers No. 5 and 6 derailed and overturned causing container No. 5, which contained 38,000 liters of diesel, to overturn to the left, and 30,000 liters of fuel was spilled. Container No. 6 which has a capacity of 48,000 liters, overturned to the right, and 3 to 4,000 liters of fuel was spilled.
The Sokimex employee said that it is sheer luck that it did not cause any human accident, and that only the Sokimex company sustained major loss. After the accident, Sokimex employees hauled the remaining containers to the company stockpile and brought in empty containers to pump fuel out of the overturned containers. In the morning of 28 October, Sokimex employees are still pumping fuel and tried to pull out the damaged containers.
4 comments:
OMG, there go our environment! We must redo our railroad soon to avoid future losses and injuries and effecting our environment... .
who care! Sokimex is ran by Vietcong military...its good news for VC....ahahah!
This is no good news, 2:51. You know fair well that this lost will end up reflecting on our fuel price soon.
Wow, look at the left rail in the picture. How crooked it is.
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