LAST week’s fuel tanker accident left four people dead and 16 others with severe burns. The victims were siphoning fuel when the fuel tanker exploded in Sunningdale. The incident has left the Sunningdale neighbourhood shell-shocked. It, however, exposes public ignorance towards danger warning signs on fuel trucks and other vehicles that carry inflammable substances. The incident also exposes bad habits among people who want to reap where they did not sow. When involved in accidents, haulage trucks, buses and even small cars have been ransacked by opportunists. In some of the highways frequently plied by the haulage trucks, criminals patrol the road to loot fuel or goods in transit. Haulage trucks carrying dangerous substances and chemicals have hazard warning signs that the public sadly neglected in last week’s tragic incident in Sunningdale. Although the initial accident did not claim a single life, the fuel explosion was catastrophic. Most fuels are highly flammable and a haulage truck transporting the fuel has a black-onred sign of a flame meaning a flammable or extremely flammable substance is in transit. The signs on the trucks show the probable consequences after a spillage. One driver said liquid fuels expanded during transportation making an explosion inevitable after an accident. “Fuels expand when being transported especially when it is hot and it should also be noted that there are other prerequisites including that a fuel tanker should be equipped with fire extinguishers,” he said. “The driver should also attend a special course to handle toxic and hazardous substances. Furthermore, the tanker should not be filled to the brim to avoid spillage.” During the FIFA soccer World Cup, in South Africa last year, more than 230 people died in the Democratic Republic of Congo, after a haulage truck carrying petrol was involved in an accident and exploded. Some of the people died while trying to siphon fuel from the tanker while others were burnt after the balls of fire were ignited to the nearby village where scores of soccer lovers were watching television in community cinemas. In Nigeria in 2009, about 70 people died after a haulage truck carrying fuel spilled its contents onto the road and exploded killing passengers in buses and other motorists. More than 2 000 people have died trying to steal fuel from the fuel pipelines in the populated West African state between 1996 and 2007. Apart from fuels there are other substances that haulage trucks carry like sulphuric acid, nitric acid, liquid nitrogen, ammonium, caustic soda and explosives that the public should avoid in the event of an accident. Trucks that carry corrosive substances like acids have a clear sign depicting the effect of the substance on the skin. Caustic soda, nitric and sulphuric acids are some of the corrosive substances transported in tankers and are equally dangerous as they can cause death or permanent disability. Haulage trucks carrying hazardous substances are forbidden from travelling at night in Zimbabwe. Drivers of tankers carrying hazardous substances should go for specialised training and each truck should carry the correct fire extinguishers.