Tipped-over tanker gushes diesel fuel
Staff writer
A Cooperative Grain and Supply tanker carrying 1,200 gallons of diesel struck a car, and tipped over Monday morning on US-56 in Hillsboro.
The collision happened around 9:45 a.m. in the westbound lane near Orchard Drive.
The truck, driven by Jeffery Lane, 62, Peabody, tried avoiding a 2006 Buick Lucerne driven by Leann Funk, 63, Hillsboro, who had slowed to make a left-hand turn onto Orchard Dr, Kansas Highway Patrol Lt. Eric Rust said.
The truck then struck the Buick’s back-right side, and toppled over, spilling fuel onto the shoulder and in a drainage ditch. Funk was able to get the car onto Orchard Drive before it became disabled.
Both vehicles needed towing.
Lane was transported by ambulance to Hillsboro Community Hospital. He is believed to have suffered serious injury according to Rust’s report of the wreck. It is unknown whether he was wearing a seat belt.
Funk is thought to not have suffered an injury and declined to be taken to a hospital.
The 2006 International 7400 diesel tanker was carrying a full tank when the accident happened. It was towed by Autohouse, based in Galva, where it will stay at a lot until the Kansas Department of Health and Environment can remove the remaining fuel and determine how much spilled.
Pads were used to contain the spilling and limit it to just a drip.
“We do that to stay on the safe side,” Marion County Emergency Management director Marcy Hostetler said. “You don’t know if the drip will get bigger and get into the culvert.”
City of Hillsboro workers and Hillsboro firefighters dammed the culvert with dirt to prevent fuel from reaching the water treatment plant. Autohouse will clean the culvert over the rest of the week and lay down new dirt.
KDHE will randomly check whether diesel still is in the dirt over the next 10 years.
“You’ll be able to tell if anything was missed because the grass won’t grow the same,” Hostetler said.
A hazardous materials unit from Herington was called and sprinkled absorbents similar to kitty litter on the pavement to soak up spilled fuel and oil.
Kansas Environmental Cleanup, based in Galva, helped spread the absorbent and right the truck, while Hillsboro firefighters washed absorbent off the asphalt with water.