Pretoria - Specialists have been deployed to clean and clear the road after a truck spilled tons of cooking oil on the N4 off-ramp in Pretoria that links with the N1 on-ramp to Johannesburg.
Emergency personnel were called to the scene to redirect traffic to avoid fast moving vehicles slipping on the oil that also spilled on the edge of the far left lane of the N4.
The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) sent its specialist contractors from Drizit Spill Technologies, Oil and Chemical Pollution Control to eradicate the spill and ensure the road would be ready and safe to use by this afternoon and also during the peak hour.
The horse and trailer truck was left with only a few buckets of the cooking oil as most of of its pallets from the truck hit the floor and left piles of the solid oil melting and flowing across the road.
Tshwane Emergency Services spokesperson deputy chief Charles Mabaso said emergency officials from various departments worked tirelessly to ensure that the road was safe for use as they used chemical powder to eat the oil off the surface of the road.
He said oil spillage was very dangerous on roads and needed to be reported and dealt with urgently to avoid accidents that could injure and hurt people who may not be aware the road was slippery.
He said: "The truck lost its load which resulted in the cooking oil spill of an undertermined quantity at the scene. There were no injuries reported around that incident."
He said further updates in terms of the clean up of the road would be provided to motorist and hopefully the road could be opened again soon to ease traffic.
The driver of the truck was not available at the scene when Pretoria News arrived.
Pretoria News