Gilroy – One westbound lane of Highway 152 was closed for five hours Tuesday evening after a tractor trailer spilled two gallons of waste paint onto the roadway.
About 5pm, the driver of the rig noticed a liquid leaking from his truck while stopped at the top of Dinosaur Point to test his brakes, California Highway Patrol officials said. The truck also contained chemicals from a drug laboratory and the driver was uncertain which was leaking.
“Somehow the load had shifted so he called 911,” officer Chris Armstrong said.
Ten gallons spilled inside the truck while an additional two gallons dripped onto the roadway.
Personnel from the California Department of Forestry, CHP and the county’s hazardous materials team responded, shutting down the right lane. The hazmat team determined the chemicals were not a vapor hazard and just waste paint. The spill was cleaned up by the trucking company.
“It was shut down for five hours while they tried to figure out what it was and clean up the spill,” Armstrong said.
