THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 30, 1996 TAG: 9601300285
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALLISON T. WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CARROLLTON LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
Carrollton Elementary School students got a holiday, and thousands of motorists got a detour Monday after about 4,000 gallons of gasoline spilled onto heavily traveled U.S. Route 258 and into a bordering field and ditch.
About 80 firefighters converged to contain the volatile spill, which happened about 12:02 a.m. State police said a tanker truck overturned when the driver apparently lost control.
Working through the night, the firefighters neutralized the gasoline with foam and erected barriers to keep the fuel from spreading.
The highway links U.S. Route 17 and Va. Route 10, used by workers heading for Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News and for meatpacking plants in Smithfield and a nuclear power plant in Surry. It is in northern Isle of Wight County, near the James River Bridge.
Between 6:30 and 8 a.m., detoured traffic was backed up for two miles, said Tammy Van Dame, a spokesperson for the state police. The road was partially reopened about noon, and fully open by late afternoon.
The school is about one-fourth mile off the thoroughfare, but all school buses arrive via 258.
The truck driver, Carl G. Bivens, 49, of Edenton, N.C.-based Eastern Fuels Inc., was charged with reckless driving. He was treated at Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News and released.
Scott Brower, assistant chief of the Carrollton Volunteer Fire Department, said his department was assisted by fire departments in Smithfield, Windsor, Chuckatuck, Suffolk, Driver, Smithfield, Portsmouth and Newport News. Volunteers from the Southside Regional Hazardous Materials Team were also on hand.
Industrial Marine Service Inc., a Norfolk-based company hired to clean up the spill, arrived Monday morning. The Department of Environmental Quality will study soil to determine how deeply the gasoline seeped and how much must be removed.
A makeup day for the school's approximately 700 students is scheduled Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. ILLUSTRATION: JOHN H. SHEALLY II
The Virginian-Pilot
The tanker truck rolled over on heavily traveled U.S. Route 258,
which links U.S. Route 17 and Va. Route 10. The driver was charged
with reckless driving. He was treated for minor injuries.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC GASOLINE SPILL by CNB