Chemical spill shuts down Highway 152
– three houses evacuated during all-day cleanup
Gilroy – A chemical spill closed Highway 152 early Thursday morning 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. A witness, Charles Campa, said he hit a mailbox. Then, over-correcting, 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.
Campa, who was driving an 18-wheeler for the Redwood Empire Lumber Company from Morgan Hill to Modesto, was one of two vehicles following the eastbound big rig. After the trucks collided, he said, powder lingered in the air.
“Everyone was kind of dazed,” he said. “I thought, ‘That guy is dead.’ ”
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. The road was expected to open at midnight.
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 – Campa’s, a mobile home, and a four-door car – 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. But it’s not the first accident on Highway 152: the winding two-line highway “does lead to the occasional head-on collision or sideswipe,” said Armstrong, especially with increased commuter traffic on the 10-mile section of highway.
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 salt peter, 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.
To carry chemicals such as potassium nitrate, a driver needs to get a HazMat driver’s license endorsement, Armstrong explained, and display diamond-shaped placards indicating that hazardous chemicals are present. Two diamond-shaped placards, one yellow, one red, were visible on the westbound rig.
To get the endorsement, drivers take a DMV test on their knowledge of hazardous materials. After the USA Patriot Act was passed, HazMat drivers are now required to undergo a background check as well.
