Just 24 hours after Malaysia and Singapore staged a joint chemical spill simulation at the Second Link, a real emergency unfolded at the very same location.
At around 5:41pm on Tuesday, a trailer carrying chemicals plunged into the sea after colliding with another trailer along KM0.8 of the PLUS Expressway near the Tuas checkpoint, Malay Mail has reported.
Fire and Rescue personnel from the Iskandar Puteri station were dispatched immediately after receiving a distress call. Photo: FB/ Sin Mah Bike Towing. Operations commander Nurmala Sideli said a team of seven was sent to the scene, where they found one of the chemical tanks had fallen into the sea.
Senior Assistant Fire Chief Mohd Faiz Suleiman later confirmed that both trailers had been transporting chemicals from Singapore into Malaysia.
The trailer that fell into the sea, according to him, was carrying propylene glycol while the second, which remained on land, was loaded with sodium hypochlorite. Photo: FB/ Sin Mah Bike Towing.
Initial checks also confirmed there were no leaks from either tank, and no signs of oil or foam were detected on the surface of the water.
“The second driver was unharmed. The first driver sustained a hand injury and was taken to Hospital Sultanah Aminah (HSA),” Faiz says. A Hazmat team was mobilised to assess the situation and ensure there was no environmental threat. Recovery efforts are underway to lift the sunken tank from the seabed, he affirmed.
The spill drill, led under the Malaysia-Singapore Joint Committee on the Environment’s (MSJCE) Joint Emergency Response Plan (JERP), was aimed at strengthening cross-border response to exactly this kind of scenario.
