By Emily Alpert
Gilroy
– A chemical spill closed Highway 152 for more than 12 hours
Thursday after two tractor-trailers crashed just east of Bloomfield
Avenue near Soap Lake.
Gilroy – A chemical spill closed Highway 152 for more than 12 hours Thursday after two tractor-trailers crashed just east of Bloomfield Avenue near Soap Lake.
A tractor-trailer lugging construction equipment collided with a second tractor-trailer vehicle carrying hazardous chemicals at 7am Thursday, spilling 10 20-pound bags of potassium nitrate onto the road.
A driver for T.C.I., a Hayward-based company, drifted onto the shoulder of the road as he traveled eastbound. Charles Campa, a witness who was driving an 18-wheeler for the Redwood Empire Lumber Company, said the T.C.I. driver hit a mailbox. Then, overcorrecting, the driver veered across the double yellow line, then back into his lane. His cab missed the oncoming vehicle – an American Trucking Company tractor-trailer carrying the chemicals – but his trailer side-swiped the other rig, knocking off its front wheel and tearing open the trailer, loaded with blue barrels filled with sulfuric acid, hydrogen peroxide and an unknown flammable liquid, and sacks filled with potassium nitrate.
The westbound driver’s left hand was lacerated, but no other injuries were reported.
Southbound traffic on U.S. 101 was backed up Thursday evening. At press time the road was still closed.
Firefighters evacuated three homes near the crash, and cordoned off a 1,000-square-foot “hot zone” with red tape. After a low-flying news helicopter threatened to stir up chemical powder, cleanup crews restricted airspace as well.
Both drivers were decontaminated. Three additional vehicles were left at the scene. At 11am, a HazMat team from San Jose was called to clean up the spill.
Thursday’s accident was the first hazardous materials collision this year on the road, Armstrong said.
The CHP is investigating the accident’s cause, using diagrams and photographs of the scene. It’s still unclear why the eastbound driver strayed from the road.
CHP officials said most of the material spilled was potassium nitrate. Potassium nitrate, commonly known as saltpeter, is used in fertilizers, fireworks and salted meat. The chemical isn’t flammable or combustible, but when mixed with other substances it can produce explosives.
Coughing, skin irritation, and red eyes can result from short-term exposure to the chemical, according to the International Occupational Safety and Health Information Centre, a United Nations agency. If ingested, it can cause convulsions and abdominal pain.
Emily Alpert covers public safety issues for The Dispatch. She can be reached at 847-7158, or at ea*****@gi************.com.
