Mineral oil in the stream

Accident in Klöch: truck spills 15,000 liters of bitumen

A delicate operation for the fire department (symbolic image).

(Bild: P. Huber)

On Monday afternoon, a 25-year-old truck driver was about to park at a company site in Klöch when he damaged the hose system of his bitumen trailer while turning. Suddenly, the dark, viscous liquid gushed out by the liter - resulting in a major incident.

An extremely tricky incident occurred on Monday afternoon in Klöch in south-eastern Styria: at around 2.30 p.m., a 25-year-old truck driver drove to a storage site on Klöchberg. He had a trailer with a full bitumen tank in tow. In order to park it at the company premises, the young man drove around a tight left-hand bend.

Dark, viscous liquid was flowing out of the hose
It was precisely this maneuver that proved to be his undoing. The rear of the truck was pressed against the trailer and damaged the hose system. As a result, almost 15,000 liters of the dark, viscous mineral oil flowed out of the ruptured hose! A small amount of it even ended up in a dried-up stream.

Excavator driver proved to be a savior in need
An excavator driver who was on site at the time of the accident reacted quickly and was able to stop the flow of bitumen with gravel. The fire department also rushed to the scene and took action to prevent anything worse from happening. Officials from the Südoststeiermark district authority and the Styrian provincial government as well as an environmental police officer were later called in. The all-clear was given for the time being and further investigations will follow.