Tanker Crash in Bridgeport, CT

[GenMarshall]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Northeast/03/26/tanker.crash/

From CNN
(CNN) -- Traffic in Bridgeport, Connecticut, dragged to a near-halt Friday morning, hours after an oil tanker crashed and burst into a ball of fire on Interstate 95, causing extensive damage to the roadway and forcing officials to close the interstate in both directions.

Connecticut Gov. John Rowland declared a state of emergency for Bridgeport and said it will take at least two weeks to repair the road.

The tanker carrying 9,000 gallons of heating oil collided with a car on an overpass, jackknifed and exploded, creating enough heat to buckle part of the southbound side of the Howard Avenue Overpass bridge, said state police spokesman Paul Vance.

About 3,000 gallons of oil spilled onto the highway, Vance said.

The driver of the tanker and drivers in surrounding cars managed to get out of their vehicles quickly and sustained minor injuries.

With traffic being re-routed on alternate roads, a tractor-trailer during Friday rush-hour jackknifed on the northbound lanes of Route 8, which had been earmarked as a detour for tractor trailers due to the crash on I-95.

The truck was blocking both northbound lanes, backing up traffic for miles and creating a further traffic nightmare for commuters.

State police said there were no injuries in the second crash but that the truck's gas tank ruptured, and authorities were now waiting for the state Department of Environmental Protection to clear the site to remove the truck and reopen the road.

Traffic on I-95 was closed in both directions between exits 25 and 27 following the tanker explosion Thursday night. About 120,000 drivers travel the stretch of highway daily, according to state police.

Rowland said work on the north- and southbound lanes of the Howard Avenue Overpass would begin immediately, with workers first removing the charred oil tanker.

"It's our hope that we'll be able to evaluate the northbound lane and determine whether that's going to be safe enough to maintain or if that has to come down too," Rowland said.

Rowland said declaring a state of emergency allows the state to seek federal funds to cover the repairs. He estimated it will cost between $3 million and $4 million to repair the road.

THis happened on the night of March 25th 2004

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Am I paranoid? When this thing happened, the first thing I thought was that this was a covert op by our intelligence agencies because they wanted to shut down that highway. If they caught wind that a valuable target would be travelling that stretch of road, they might have wanted to divert the target to an alternate route that would make it easier to bag the perp, without causing a media circus that would alert the targets co-conspirators.

 

[h4ppy]

No one got hurt appearently so I will go ahead and say neato.

 

[Xerol]

A very similar thing happened in Baltimore about a month ago. A gas tanker flipped off of a bridge and fell onto a section of I-95 below. I think the bridge is still closed, but I'm not sure.