The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Truck carrying chemical gases crashes on Route 9
MIDDLETOWN — City firefighters spent at least five-and-a-half hours — with many more ahead — helping state environment and traffic authorities clean up the scene of a crash involving a tractortrailer carrying chemical gases on Route 9 on Tuesday.
The driver, who works for Esquire Dry Ice of Naugatuck, was transporting six different types of gases in 280 containers, traveling south on the highway just past Exit 11. His tire blew out, causing his vehicle to go off the right side of the roadway, hit a guardrail and travel down an embankment, according to South Fire District Chief Michael Howley.
“The cylinders are in racks on the truck and there are no leaks at this time,” he said.
The force of the collision did rip open some of the truck’s diesel saddle tanks, the chief said. The operator was sent to the hospital for evaluation of minor injuries, Howley added.
By rush hour, cars were backed up on the highway “extensively,” the chief said, through to the on-ramp at Exit 12 in Middletown and down to Saybrook and Randolph roads.
Traffic was backed up a half-mile at midday and was “moving pretty well,” Howley said, but that changed dramatically as evening came.
Route 9 was open to northbound traffic for much of the day, and a single lane was open going south. By early evening, state police, hazmat personnel and state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and Department of Transportation staff were working to remediate the situation.
“It’s a very slow and long operation,” Howley said around 5 p.m. as crews tried to get the truck off the embankment, something he expected to take at least two more hours. “It’s going to be an operation up there on the highway for at least another eight to 10 more hours.
“They want to take it out intact and not have to offload any of the chemical cylinders in there,” Howley said.
Meanwhile, traffic was being diverted to Exit 10 in Haddam.