18-WHEELER COLLIDES WITH BRIDGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION IN GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS

 

18-WHEELER COLLIDES WITH BRIDGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION IN GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS

February 9, 2015

GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS:

Work is underway to remove an 18-wheeler that crashed and caught fire Monday night near Belt Line Road.

Officials said the driver lost control and drove into the HOV lane. He collided with a bridge that was still under construction.

“The truck driver got confused while negotiating a construction zone and drove into a closed portion of the freeway, colliding with the bridge structure that was under construction,” said Grand Prairie Sgt. Eric Hansen.

There were intense flames as the truck's load of Styrofoam and cardboard burned.

The driver was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

The bridge was not yet in use, but suffered some damage.

“Scalding to the concrete and it will probably have to be replaced,” said Battalion Chief Cal Timpf with the Grand Prairie Police Department.

Investigators said that it is too early to know if the driver will face any charges.

Officials with the Texas Department of Transportation came out to inspect the scorched bridge, and said that it looks to be okay. However, workers spent the night and morning cleaning up debris and repairing a damaged guardrail. TxDOT plans to seek reimbursement for the damages from either the driver or his insurance company. The total cost is not yet known.

The now burned bridge is part of a $63 million project to widen and improve the HOV lanes from Arlington into Dallas. This is supposed to be completed by early next year. TxDOT is not sure if the crash will have any delay on that expected end date.

Several lanes of traffic remained closed Tuesday morning. Officials hoped to reopen them by 10 a.m.

The truck is a total loss.

1 DEAD, SEVERAL INJURED IN HIGH-SPEED, FIERY, HEAD-ON CAR CRASH IN SOUTH PHOENIX. SOME PEOPLE HAVE A DEATH WISH.

 

1 DEAD, SEVERAL INJURED IN HIGH-SPEED, FIERY, HEAD-ON CAR CRASH IN SOUTH PHOENIX.  SOME PEOPLE HAVE A DEATH WISH.

 February 9, 2015

PHOENIX, ARIZONA – 

One person was killed in a high-speed, fiery, head-on car crash in South Phoenix and a woman was saved when bystanders pulled her from one of the vehicles moments before it burst into flames.

It happened at about midnight Sunday at 7th Avenue and Elwood Street. There were two vehicles involved in the collision.

A woman in her mid-thirties, who was in the vehicle that burned, would have died if she was not rescued by the civilians, according to Capt. Aaron Ernsberger with the Phoenix Fire Department.

"Without a doubt they saved their life. We'd like to find them and thank them and shake their hand and tell them how much we appreciate them," said Capt. Ernsberger. "I walked by the vehicle and it was completely burned out on the inside to point to where the steering wheel is missing so it was a very hot fire obviously unsurvivable."

The person who was killed was a man in his forties who was driving the vehicle that did not catch on fire. A woman and ten-year-old boy, who were in the vehicle with the man, were taken to a hospital in serious condition.

They were trapped in the vehicle and Phoenix Fire crews had to use extrication tools to rescue them.

The woman, who was in the car that burned, was also taken to a hospital. She is also in serious condition.

Investigators from the Phoenix Police Department are working to determine the cause of the crash.

The names of those involved have not been released.

CLEANUP UNDERWAY FOLLOWING MUDSLIDE, FLOODING IN BRINNON, WASHINGTON

 

CLEANUP UNDERWAY FOLLOWING MUDSLIDE, FLOODING IN BRINNON, WASHINGTON

February 10, 2015

BRINNON, WASHINGTON:

A second mudslide has left residents cleaning up on Saturday following severe flooding and evacuations in the rural town of Brinnon on Friday.
Officials say a second mudslide near the site of Friday's mudslide is partially blocking the road, but not affecting any homes.

The water has receded back into the Duckabush River bank, and is down about four feet from its original height, Brinnon resident Ron Sandrini said Saturday.
No injuries have been reported, though three people attempting to flee the area were rescued on Friday after their truck became stranded in flood waters.
As heavy rain continued to fill and overflow Duckabush River banks Friday afternoon, a swift water rescue team and Jefferson County officials patrolled the area, going door-to-door on welfare checks. The majority of people who live in the area did not evacuate, officials said Saturday.
Assistant Fire Chief Ben Andrews called the scene "pretty bad," and said many homes had water in them.
Emergency responders initially rushed to the area near Shorewood Road and Kelly Road in Brinnon, off Duckabush Road, at about 1 a.m. Friday after receiving reports of a mudslide, said a spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management. The slide reportedly blocked the road and damaged five or six homes.
A National Weather Service spotter reported that 4.43 inches of rain fell in the area between 4 p.m. Thursday and 7:30 a.m. Friday.

//_________________________________________//

Floodwater from the Duckabush River has inundated a number of homes on Kelly Road in Brinnon, Wash., and a separate mudslide has partially closed Shorewood and Kelly Roads.

The mudslide didn't impact any homes or cause the flooding, according to Keppi Kepplin of Jefferson County Emergency Management. The moisture level in the soil is moderate and more rain is expected through Monday, so other mudslides are possible in the area.

Instead Kepplin said heavy rains pushed the river over its banks. While minor flooding is common along the Duckabush, this level of flooding is significant for this area.

At one point, the Duckabush River was five feet higher than normal. Friday afternoon it started to recede.

Highway 101 along Hood Canal has received the brunt of the rainfall over the last 24 hours, meteorologist Lisa Van Cise said. A weather station at Green Mountain Elementary School recorded over 4.5 inches of rain near Bremerton in the last two days.

Swift water rescue teams are going door-to-door through the neighborhood to make sure everyone is OK.

Three people were rescued from a truck trying to leave the area. They were not injured, Kepplin said.

People should not drive into standing water. It doesn't take much to stop a car and it's often hard to tell how deep the water is.

The National Weather Service has issued flood warnings for the Nooksack, Grays, Skagit, Skokomish, and Elwha Rivers, as well as flood watches in a number of counties.

No injuries have been reported.

THE ROLLOVER RISKS OF TANKER TRUCKS ARE SIGNIFICANT: 1,200 GALLON SONOMA COAST GASOLINE TANKER SPILL AS THE DRIVER MADE A SLIGHT TURN

 

THE ROLLOVER RISKS OF TANKER TRUCKS ARE SIGNIFICANT: 1,200 GALLON SONOMA COAST GASOLINE TANKER SPILL AS THE DRIVER MADE A SLIGHT TURN

February 7, 2015

SONOMA, CALIFORNIA:

 

Recent rain on the Sonoma Coast appears to have helped mitigate fallout from an overturned tanker that leaked an estimated 1,200 gallons of gasoline off Highway 1 onto the surrounding landscape and into the ocean near Jenner on Sunday morning. 

Though fuel did reach the surf, it got there in a fast-moving seasonal creek swollen with runoff that would have diluted the substance even before it reached the roiling ocean, said Monte Rio Fire Chief Steve Baxman, who responded to the accident. 

Gasoline also evaporates more quickly than diesel or other oily fuels that can leave a slick or sheen on the ocean surface, said Alexia Retallack, a spokeswoman for the California Office of Spill Prevention and Response.

The result is there appeared to be no impact on wildlife from the incident, though work crews and agency personnel remained on the scene Monday excavating fuel-soaked soils and ensuring no further contamination occurred, Retallack said. 

That could take a few days, as any contaminated earth near or beneath the roadbed needs to be moved very carefully to prevent seepage or spread, she said. 

The soil then needs to be replaced with clean material, she said. Caltrans was expected to have to replace part of the highway, as well, since gasoline degrades asphalt, authorities said. 

Traffic on Highway 1 was to be reduced to one-way controlled traffic through the area in the meantime, the CHP said. 

But despite the continued inconvenience to motorists and local residents, who endured complete closure of the highway for nearly 20 hours Sunday, there was good news in the spill’s limited residual effects on- and offshore. 

“We don’t have any wildlife impacts that have been reported right now,” Retallack said. “There was some vegetation that got material on it. But with the heavy rains, it got flushed very quickly.” 

The spill occurred shortly after 8 a.m. Sunday when a northbound trucker driving a fully loaded fuel transport rig entered a slight left curve near Meyer’s Grade Road and allowed his right front tire to drop onto the earthen shoulder, according to the CHP. 

The driver, Terry Lippolis, of Grants Pass, Ore., managed to get the truck back on the road, the CHP said. But he was towing a tank trailer and its tires slid into a culvert, causing the entire rig to overturn. 

Lippolis’ total load was 8,800 gallons, but only one compartment in the rear tank ruptured, limiting the spill to 1,200 gallons, authorities said. 

A host of emergency personnel responded, including CHP, Cal Fire, Monte Rio and Russian River fire personnel, hazardous materials teams from Sonoma and Napa counties, California State Parks personnel, the U.S. Coast Guard, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, and a representative from the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. 

Baxman, who was among the initial responders, said it was pouring rain as crews worked to contain the spilled fuel. Much of it flowed into a steep ditch alongside the highway about 30 feet above a culvert under the road. The culvert channeled the fuel directly into the fast-moving stream, down about 200 feet to the beach and another 100 or 200 feet into the ocean. 

“That seasonal creek is flowing pretty hot and heavy ‘cause it was raining like heck,” Baxman said. “You may find traces in the ocean, but it’s going to be so little. And then the ocean was a little rough, so that’s going to chop it up.”

Retallack said local Fish and Wildlife wardens collaborated with a member of the agency’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response soon after the event to follow spill protocols. She said a good deal of tainted soil was removed by hand Sunday. 

She said she did not expect any long-term impacts like fuel along the shore or ill effects for birds or other wildlife. 

“They’ll be looking for that,” she said of the wardens, “but they (any wildlife) would have had to have had immediate contact and exposure. And we had the storms, we had a lot of water, we had a lot of things that would have affected how much went where and how diluted it was.

“At this point in time, the only thing they are dealing with is the soil,” she said.

The Napa Interagency Hazard Team (NIHT) assisted Sunday in mitigating the environmental impacts of a tanker truck gasoline spill on Highway 1 near Jenner.

The eight-member team helped the Sonoma team drill the truck and trailer and transferred 6,800 gallons of fuel to another truck, CalFire reported.

An estimated 1,200 gallons of gasoline leaked from the a tank trailer that slid into a culvert, officials said.

The NIHT is composed of personnel from several Napa County agencies. The members responding to this call were from Napa County Fire Department and American Canyon Fire Protection District.