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MONUMENT-Both lanes of I-25 are now open after an oil tanker overturned Wednesday morning near the Baptist Rd. Bridge.Part of theinterstate was closed for most of the day, causing huge delays.The northbound lane re-opened at 9:30pm and the southbound was cleared just before midnight.
“This particular tanker was hauling 7,400 gallons of unleaded fuel,” says CSP Sgt. Adrian Driscoll. “So in order to tow that vehicle we can’t just pick up the chassis and move it.”
Instead the fuel in the tanker was siphoned into another truck, a dangerous process that took Hazmat crews hours to complete. Police say a single spark could’ve caused a major explosion, injuring everyone at the crash site.
Police say the driver of the truck came up too fast on a traffic jam in the southbound lane. He swerved to avoid hittingany cars, which causedhis truck to flip on its sidein the median and slide across theinterstate into a ditch. The driver of the truck was unharmed. His Texas trucking company is now responsible for paying the state for the entire safety and clean-up effort.
The road closure caused delays for thousands of people, but police say a Hazmat situation requiresmany safety steps.
“Closing down the interstate is one of those steps. If something happened here and innocent people got hurt that would be a bad thing,” says Sgt. Driscoll.
He saysabout 500 gallons of fuel spilled out of truck and seeped into the ground.Clean-up crews will be out Thursdayto remove the affected the soil. Driscoll says the spill didn’t affect any waterways.
