Jackknifed Truck Snarls 84—

Winter Weather Creates Travel Problems

By Andrew Gorosko

While the weather so far this winter had been relatively mild, residents this week were reminded that it is January, a time of year when bitter cold, high winds, and snowfall can be expected.

Following the Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, holiday on Monday, many people started their work week and school week on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, local schools had a delayed start of classes to allow town road crews to sand, salt, and plow an overnight snowfall to make the roads safe for travel, especially for the dozens of school buses that ply town roads.

Travel hazards posed by that snowfall were clearly illustrated when a tractor-trailer truck traveling on Interstate 84 jackknifed, causing westbound I-84 travel delays that lasted for several hours.

 State police said that trucker Kristopher Bryant, 26, of Pahrunp, Nev., was driving a 2010 Peterbilt tractor-trailer westward on I-84 at about 4:11 am, about two miles east of Exit 9, when he lost control of the truck and struck a bridge abutment along the right road shoulder, causing the truck to jackknife. The truck did not roll over. Bryant was not injured. Enforcement information was not available.

The accident occurred in the area where I-84 crosses above The Boulevard and Hanover Road, which is about 2,000 feet east of the Parmalee Hill Road overpass.

Although the trailer hauled by the truck was empty, the impact of the crash caused a side-mounted fuel tank to rupture and spill about 40 gallons of diesel fuel onto the highway through a five-inch-long gash in the tank.

State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) spokesman Dwayne Gardner said that a DEEP spill inspector responded to the scene to supervise the fuel spill cleanup.

The trucking company hired Moran Environmental Recovery of Newtown to clean up the spillage and pump out the fuel that was remaining in the truck’s fuel tanks, Mr Gardner said.

Some of the spilled fuel found its way into a nearby stormwater catch basin, which was then pumped dry of its contents, he added. “There was little to no environmental impact,” according to Mr Gardner.

Newtown Hook & Ladder Fire Chief Jason Rivera, who was the incident commander at the scene, said five Hook & Ladder firefighters responded to the accident in two fire vehicles during slippery road conditions. It was raining at the time, he said.

Roadways were slick due to the presence of snow and ice, he said.

The full width of the westbound highway was closed to traffic only for about one minute, he said. As emergency crews worked at the scene, the left lane of westbound I-84 remained open to traffic flow, he said.

Firefighters stabilized the truck, and isolated the fuel that had spilled with absorbent material, he said.

The state Department of Transportation (DOT) used a sanding truck to make the highway safe for travel, Chief Rivera added.

At about 9 am on Tuesday, almost five hours after the accident had occurred, westbound traffic on I-84 was backed up to the Exit 15 off-ramp in Southbury, a distance of about five miles.

The jackknifed truck did not affect traffic flow on eastbound I-84.

Besides the travel problems on I-84, several motorists on local roads were involved in accidents on slippery pavement. Those mishaps included incidents on Poverty Hollow Road, Hattertown Road, Bancroft Road, and Saw Mill Road, police said. Travel problems also reportedly occurred on Scudder Road and Papoose Hill Road. (See police reports for details.)

Also, local volunteer fire companies responded to three reports of utility wires having come down between 7:09 pm on Tuesday and 5:13 am on Wednesday at Toddy Hill Road, Hanover Road, and Button Shop Road.

 

Slippery Conditions

Fred Hurley, town public works director, said that the one to two inches of snow that fell on Newtown overnight from Monday to Tuesday made for some slippery road conditions.

Starting late Monday night, town road crews started their sanding, salting, and some plowing work, he said. By about 5 am on Tuesday, local roads were in good conditions, he said.

Of the winter weather the town has experienced so far, Mr Hurley said, “Pretty mild. And I’m pretty thankful.”

But he cautioned, “Hold your breath and buckle up because it could be a bumpy ride,” he said of the potential for worse weather in February and March.

If such heavy weather should arrive as the winter progresses, the town is in good shape in terms of its sand/salt stockpiles, he said.

 Bill Halstead, the town’s director of emergency management, said that compared to the historic heavy snowfalls of January 2011, this winter so far has been “pretty mild.”

As people recall how severe the weather was last January, they deserve a break this winter, Mr Halstead observed.

On the afternoon of January 13, high winds brought down a tree and electrical lines on Pocono Road at its intersection with Old Hawleyville Road in Hawleyville, closing the intersection to traffic until repairs could be made.