“That tanker is going to roll.” That was the first thing Mathew Ondek Jain thought when he saw the oil tanker careening around the bend.

When the tanker did land on its side and fuel started flowing out of the ruptured tank, the 31 year-old offshore worker did not need to be told what would happen next. 

Instinct – and training – probably saved his life.

Mathew, who was at the head of the line of traffic stopping at the junction,  had a “grandstand” view of the events unfolding.

“When I saw the tanker about to roll over, I was already trying to back my motorcycle and turn around. I knew there was going to be a fire and explosion.

“I felt I was too slow, so I just dumped my bike and ran as fast as I could. I ran in the direction of the Bintulu Medical Centre,” Mathew told The Malaysian Insight of his experience in the oil tanker explosion in the town of Bintulu on Monday.

Mathew didn’t run fast enough.

There was a boom and the next thing Mathew knew, he was flying through the air.

“I don’t know how far I was thrown by the blast. Quite a distance I believe.

“When I landed, I didn’t think to measure it. All I felt when I picked up myself was the searing pain I felt on my body. But I just continued running without looking back.”

Mathew, who moments earlier had gone to the bank at the commercial centre where BMC was located, was wearing his fireproof overalls.

As such, only the exposed areas of his body –  the back of the hands, the back of his neck and “a little bit of both legs”  – were seared by the hot blast.

“If I had been wearing ordinary clothes, I think I would have been on fire.”

In that moment of danger, Mathew said, “there was only one thing on my mind: Save myself”.

“I didn’t know what was going on around me or what the other motorists caught in the blast were doing.

“It was only when I felt safe that I looked back to see what had happened.”

What he saw was a ball of raging fire, a few cars alight, and people running helter skelter.

“I was in no shape to be a hero and help other people. I was in pain.”

The father of one is nursing the blisters that has begun to show on his hands and neck, but he is thankful to be alive.

“I believe God is giving me a chance at life and to solve all my problems in this world.”

A video of the event on social media shows motorists trying to reverse their cars in panic.

A few are seen abandoning their cars and fleeing on foot.

The oil tanker driver was killed in the accident.

Mathew was the only motorcyclist at the busy Medan Jaya traffic light junction in Jalan Kidurong at the time.
 
Those in cars were mostly shielded from the hot blast.

A woman driver was lightly injured.

The six vehicles immediately surrounding the tanker, including Mathew’s motorcycle, were destroyed in the ensuing fire.

Police and eye witnesses said the tanker had hit a road divider as it was turning into Jalan Bekri Ting, which caused the loaded tanker to roll over.

The charred body of the oil tanker driver was retrieved from under a four-wheel drive vehicle. He was Martin Joshua, 31.

That incident and another fatal accident in Lahad Datu, Sabah, where three people in a van were killed, prompted Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research chairman Lee Lam Thye to call on the government to set up a transformation lab for lorries and trucks, similar to the express bus transformation lab.

Lee said the lab would help the authorities work out mitigatation measures to reduce the number of accidents involving lorries and lessen the impact on other road users. – July 12, 2017.