MANCHESTER, Conn — The gasoline tanker rollover crash that happened Sunday continues to impact rush-hour traffic on Interstate 84 in Manchester on Monday.
State officials said their goal is to have the environmental cleanup completed Monday night and have all three lanes open by Tuesday morning. “We're going to be out here around the clock until it’s done,” said Ken LeClerc, a supervisor with CT DEEP Emergency Response.
State environmental officials toured of the massive effort to make sure nearly 1,000 gallons of gasoline that spilled doesn't get into the nearby Hockanum River. Crews cut through asphalt, excavated contaminated dirt and drilled soil samples. “We believe at this point there is no evidence of any catch basis, stream, river or groundwater impact,” said LeClerc.
Newly released dash cam footage shows the Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by Dina Karat of Enfield, cut off a gas tanker from Brown Bear Transportation out of Springfield, Massachusetts sending both vehicles rolling over in a fireball. State Police say Karat was operating on a suspended license. “It looked like from where I was sitting in the car that this could have been a terrible terrible outcome for many people,” said Appleton.
Miraculously, the driver of the tanker, and driver and passenger of the SUV only suffered minor injuries. State Police say everyone was wearing their seat belt.
Faced with a tanker truck rollover, state officials made what they believed was a correct decision. It was a decision they had to make quickly. They decided to let the gasoline burn off, rather than extinguish the flames with water. That would have further saturated the soil and contributed to the spread of the contamination. The other option was to use firefighting foam but that contained environmentally hazardous PFAS chemicals. “Working with Manchester Fire to let it burn greatly reduced the impact to any waterways,” explained LeClerc.
Monday’s cleanup was the aftermath of Sunday’s inferno. The rollover incident took place just before 9 p.m. on I-84 in Manchester near Exit 60. “What I saw was really scary. It was a 30-foot pillar of flame going straight up in the air,” described Tim Appleton, who got caught in the multi-mile traffic backup.
Police and emergency crews worked quickly to shut down the highway. “We were in the eastbound lane. They turned the traffic around and had us drive west in the eastbound lane to get to another exit where we eventually got through traffic. But it was a very scary scene,” said Appleton.
The Jeep driver was issued an infraction for driving with a suspended license and failure to maintain proper lane.
---
Have a story idea or something on your mind you want to share? We want to hear from you! Email us at newstips@fox61.com
----
HERE ARE MORE WAYS TO GET FOX61 NEWS
Download the FOX61 News APP
iTunes: Click here to download
Google Play: Click here to download
Stream Live on ROKU: Add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching FOX61.
Steam Live on FIRE TV: Search ‘FOX61’ and click ‘Get’ to download.