NORWALK, Conn. — A tanker truck crammed with gasoline burst into flames in a three-vehicle crash on Interstate 95 in Connecticut, closing the East Coast’s major north-south freeway Thursday and inflicting main site visitors jams.
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont stated there have been no severe accidents within the 5:30 a.m. accident. However the freeway was anticipated to be closed for a lot of the day.
Textual content alerts have been despatched to residents of Connecticut, New York and New Jersey and trucking corporations have been notified to search out various routes and technique of journey, he stated. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has additionally been notified.
“I know what an incredible inconvenience this is for people and all I can ask you to do is stay away from that area as best you can,” Lamont stated throughout a briefing in Hartford. “The traffic jams are horrendous.”
Visitors was backed up for dozens of miles through the morning rush hour and the crash left different highways and secondary roads in gridlock. The main alternate route within the space, the Merritt Parkway, can’t be utilized by vans as a result of the underpasses on that freeway are too low.
The accident was harking back to final 12 months’s lethal accident in Philadelphia alongside I-95 when a tractor-trailer carrying gasoline misplaced management and caught hearth, destroying a bit of the freeway.
Thursday’s accident occurred underneath a bridge. The overpass has been damaged however seemed to be “stable and safe,” stated Scott Hill, chief engineer for the Connecticut Division of Transportation.
Engineers have been nonetheless ready at midday to entry the scene and assess the complete extent of the harm with the purpose of getting the freeway reopened as shortly as attainable.
“As you know, there has been several other incidents around the state and elsewhere where when a tanker truck caught fire underneath the bridge, the bridge ultimately had to be replaced,” Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling stated. “Hopefully that will be the case here.”
Utility crews have been working to exchange downed wires and crews additionally wanted to dump about 3,000 gallons (about 11,400 liters) of gasoline that remained on the tanker, which was carrying a load of about 8,500 gallons (about 32,000 liters) when it crashed, officers stated.
“Gasoline can really heat up and heat the bridge up and cause the steel to deform,” he stated. “Once we figure out everything that’s associated with the safety of the traveling public and what we can and can’t do, we’ll get more updates to you.”
Environmental crews have been additionally working to scrub up gasoline and firefighting foam that ran off into the Norwalk River, officers stated.
The crash got here simply over a 12 months after an identical wreck on Interstate 95 in Connecticut that compelled the closure of the freeway.
In April 2023, one other gasoline truck caught hearth after colliding with a stopped automobile on the Gold Star Memorial Bridge between New London and Groton. The gasoline truck driver was killed. The crash shut down the southbound facet of the bridge for hours, whereas the northbound facet was closed briefly. The motive force of the automobile was just lately charged with negligent murder.