Thursday - June 25, 2009

No Evacuation For Drew

It’s not often that the Warren Reporter makes the news it reports, but that happened Wednesday night when a box truck carrying 18,085 editions of the paper and a tractor-trailer hauling liquid oxygen collided in Union Township, Hunterdon County, injuring both drivers and shutting down the highway as hazardous materials teams swooped in to clean up the scene.
New Jersey State Police at Perryville are investigating the crash, and at this point are not sure what caused it, according to Capt. Gerald Lewis. The wreck occurred about 10:45 p.m. Wednesday at mile marker 14.6 on Interstate 78 West.

The tanker was hauling about 4,000 pounds of liquid oxygen that had to be offloaded onto another truck, Lewis said. Emergency crews remain at the scene, cleaning up the wreckage.

Troopers and Clinton Township police also closed Route 173 and evacuated the Clinton Diner and Clinton truck stop as a precaution. About 20 minutes after these areas were cleared, officials learned the trucks were stuck together, and they sprayed the tanker with water to keep it cool.
Eastbound traffic was backed up from Exit 11 to the Pennsylvania border, and the westbound lanes were closed immediately after the crash, which was near the Rupell Road overpass.

Ok, the Google map isn’t GPS accurate. The accident actually happened a few hundred yards west of there, right behind one of the rows of units here in our condo park. Um, right where I used to live! Lucky me. Lucky us that we have a bit of an embankment between the rest of the homes and the highway. The diner mentioned is right up at the top of the hill here, just off the left side of the map, and the truck stop is half a mile west from there. Rt 173 is in several pieces, because it was there before the highway went in. Heck, it was there before America went in; it’s the old stagecoach road, which in turn was part of the track the Dutch used to move iron ore across the area back in colonial times.

And I wouldn’t have thought that liquid oxygen was much of a hazmat affair, though it could have frozen some stuff, or really aided any fires, if it had broken loose. And spraying water on it isn’t going to cool it down, seeing as the stuff is kept at about -300°F. Although maybe that could form an ice coating and help seal the tanks? Nah, probably not.

I heard the fire engines go out last night around 10:50pm. I had no idea why. Since I’m not commuting anymore, I didn’t even know the highway was closed this morning. Somebody had to send me an email to tell me what was going on in my own backyard. It figures.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/25/2009 at 01:04 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life •  
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