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Fatal accident closes I-68
Cheat Lake residents near interstate put under shelter-in-place advisory
CHEAT LAKE — A fatal tractor-trailer accident that resulted in a hazardous chemical leak closed a five-mile stretch of Interstate 68 for much of Friday.
The leak, which occurred when a tanker truck carrying toluene overturned around 4:45 a.m., led to a shut-down of I-68 and a shelter-in-place advisory for the residents of about 4,000 homes in the Cheat Lake area.
The shelter-in-place advisory was lifted by 11 a.m. after the state Department of Environmental Protection determined that there was no health threat from the spilled toluene, Mike Wolfe of Monongalia County Emergency Management said.
The cause of the accident or how much of the chemical spilled from the truck wasn’t immediately clear, according to Wolfe, but the leak had been contained. However, all lanes of I-68 from mile marker 10 to Bruceton Mills remained closed into Friday afternoon.
The name of the truck driver was not released, pending notification of the family.
Because the accident occurred about 20 minutes from the Maryland state line, the Maryland State Highway Administration urged motor-ists to avoid I-68.
Garrett County had not experienced much in the way of traffic problems, according to Chief Deputy Randy Resh of the Garrett County Sheriff’s Office.
“As far as traffic is concerned, they seem to have been handling it in West Virginia,” Resh said.
Vehicles were redirected onto alternate routes.
“They stopped us and had traffic stopped at the top of the mountain at the truck rest area as you get into West Virginia,” Leroy Nicol, who was stopped with traffic at about 10:15 a.m., said. “Traffic seemed to move good, but it took a half hour to get off 68 and turned around, and we had to ask directions to get where we wanted to go. There were no warnings until that exit.”
Toluene is a colorless liquid used to make paints, paint thinners, fingernail polish and other similar products, and exposure can affect a person’s nervous system, causing dizziness, nausea, unconsciousness or even death.
While the chemical leak did not affect Garrett County, Resh said if it had, the county has a series of protective measures and policies in place for a hazardous material spill.
Allegany County also has plans in place for any emergency of this type. According to Dick DeVore, director of emergency management for Allegany County, the county has a hazardous incident response team. He said that the hazardous material response plan is in the final stages of revisions and there are also alerts and warning systems in place for any such incident within the county.
