Truck Crashes With Contaminated Shipment

Truck Crashes With Contaminated Shipment

(NewsReady.com) – Federal and Ohio officials are still cleaning up the East Palestine train derailment site. The train carrying toxic chemicals went off the tracks on February 2 and lit on fire. Contaminated dirt from the site is being trucked out of the area and sent to facilities certified to handle it. Recently, one of those vehicles was in an accident.

On April 10, the Ohio Emergency Management Agency announced a commercial truck hauling about 40,000 pounds of contaminated dirt from the derailment site was involved in an accident. According to the State Highway Patrol, the vehicle ran off the road and overturned. It landed on its right side, then spilled about 20,000 pounds of soil onto the road and the berm.

The driver, 74-year-old Phillip S. Falck of McDonald, suffered minor injuries in the crash. Police cited him for not maintaining control of the vehicle.

The Ohio EPA said the spill was not a threat to the waterways nearby. The stretch of the impacted road was closed while crews cleaned up the area. A crew with 21 News visited the site of the crash on April 11 and reported straw was on the ground near where the contaminated soil spilled. A nearby ranch owner, Tony Lamia, said authorities dug down into the ground , deeper than they needed to go. He said there was already new grass seed put down. Despite the efforts of the EPA, the rancher said he was worried there could still be contaminants in the ground. “Nothing is 100%,” he said.

James Lee, the Ohio EPA media relations manager, said the contaminated soil was all cleaned up. Now, they will be putting down more clean soil and grass seed.

As for the original derailment site, crews are still working on cleaning up the area. As of April 10, more than 17,000 tons of contaminated soil were still awaiting removal.

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