Two people killed in truck crash in WA’s Pilbara region

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Authorities are investigating a truck crash in Western Australia's Pilbara region which has left at least two people dead. The truck hit a car yesterday afternoon and both vehicles were destroyed in a subsequent fire.

Transcript

00:00 We don't know exactly know how the crash occurred, but we do know that around 3.30pm yesterday

00:06 afternoon a triple road train carrying 25 tonnes of ammonium nitrate collided with a

00:13 car.

00:14 The crash happened on the Great Northern Highway between the Osce Roadhouse and Karajini Drive.

00:19 The vehicles were left incinerated and police say at least two people have died.

00:24 But it's still not known how many people were actually in the vehicles.

00:27 The crash arrived near the scene with police yesterday to investigate, but they haven't

00:31 actually been able to reach the site because of the risks involved with the ammonium nitrate.

00:37 The chemical ammonium nitrate is often used for blasting at mine sites, but we don't know

00:41 exactly where the truck was going or who the truck was associated with.

00:45 Like I said before, I think the biggest concern at the moment is the ammonium nitrate and

00:50 that risk of an explosion.

00:51 So what's the situation at the scene right now?

00:56 Well ammonium nitrate has spilled on the floor on the road and the truck has also been tipped

01:02 upside down on the road.

01:03 The fire is still burning and there's a lot of smoke in the area as well.

01:07 Emergency crews did do a temperature check around an hour ago and they still need to

01:12 wait for the temperature to get below 180 degrees before firefighters are able to go

01:17 in there and extinguish the fire.

01:20 The Great Northern Highway is closed between Nanatara-Mungina Road and Karajini Drive and

01:26 there's also a two kilometre exclusion zone in place because of that explosion risk.

01:32 Last year a truck carrying ammonium nitrate exploded in WA's goldfields, so emergency

01:37 services are taking this really seriously.

01:40 So what happens next, Jasmin?

01:44 Well we're still waiting for that temperature to drop before firefighters are able to go

01:48 in there and extinguish the fire.

01:50 It could take firefighters between three to five hours to actually extinguish the blaze.

01:55 Then Major Crash will do an investigation at the scene and then it'll take some time

02:00 for the clean up and to assess the road damage before the roads are reopened again.

02:05 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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