Posted on 08/10/2005 3:14:00 PM PDT by ghostcat
KSL News) – A tanker truck carrying some sort of explosive material overturned and exploded this afternoon on Highway 6, up Spanish Fork Canyon. It caught fire and exploded.
Highway 6 is shut down in both directions and is expected to remain so for up to eight hours. The accident was reported about 1:30. It's about 10 miles up Spanish Fork Canyon, just east of the Thistle Fork Junction.
Doug McCleve of the Utah Department of Public Safety confirmed there was an explosion and there were some injuries, including two burn victims.
There's apparently a crater now in the middle of the road. Witnesses say it's about 30 feet deep and possibly 60 feet wide.
A witness said he saw the driver get pulled out of the truck before it exploded. He said when the driver was pulled to safety, he warned everyon on the scene that the truck was full of blasting caps and primer cord and everyone should run.
Kirby Glad, Witness: "When the truck blew it pretty much diminished the entire truck. There is probably just an axle left. You could see the engine block over off on the side of the road and smoldering pieces of the truck were up, probably as high as 40 feet up the side of the hill. It left about a 35 foot crater in the road and took out the railroad tracks next to the road. About ten cars had their windshields forced in or completely blown out."
Some of the debris is still smoldering.
Everyone, including emergency personnel, is being kept at least ½ mile from the scene, downwind, because right now they don't know what kind of explosive material the truck was carrying, or what kind of fumes it's giving off.
Medical helicopters are arriving on the scene. At this point we don't know what type of injuries there may be.
Kirby Glad says it looked like the truck failed to maneuver a sharp curve, and that could have contributed to the accident.
Tom Hudachko, UDOT's spokesman, says there is extensive damage to the road. The explosion and crater took out the entire width of the road as well as supporting materials. This section will need an entire rebuild over the next few days. He says they still need to figure out if some sort of temporary bypass will be built or if the road will be closed for several days.
The railroad will also need to focus on some rebuilding.
This causes a big detour issue throughout the central part of the state. Highway 6 is the main road to south eastern Utah, and with it out of commission for several hours, traffic will be impacted.
Possible Alternative Routes:
* Stay on I-15, get off just south of Nephi at State Road 28, take that road to Gunnison on to Salina, then get onto I-70 and make your way east.
* Another alternative where the accident is, about 5 miles east of Thistle, drivers could take Highway 89 and head south. Head to Fairview and take Highway 31 over Fairview canyon, which will bring you out near Huntington, where you can get back onto Highway 6. Be cautioned that it is a mountain road, and is probably better for passenger cars than trucks carrying loads.
* You can also cut off at Helper and go up to Highway 40 to Duchesne on Highway 191, and back around that way.
* An extremely long detour would be to take I-70 down to Cove Fort, then get on I-15 and come north.
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Just down the road.
This is a heavily used cutoff between I-70 and I-15
bump
Holy moly... check out the pics at the link... quite a crater.
I don't get it. Tanker trucks carry liquid. And you don't carry blasting caps and det cord in a tanker. Which one was it?
For those of us who don't live in your neighborhood, where is hwy 6?
I pray the injured will be o.k.
... now back to Aruba.
Into small pieces, I guess.
This is south of Salt Lake City about 50-60 miles, up a canyon that leads to Soldier Summit, then down the other side to Price, UT. Ultimately, it leads to Green River, Utah and I-70. As one poster said, it is a heavily traveled route.
When I was in college at BYU, and then later for a couple of years living in the Provo-Orem area, I used to use this route all the time to get back to Texas.
Hope that helps.
Thanks, Jeff.
It runs from price utah to spanish fork utah where it cvonnects to I-15. it is the cutoff used by truckers who get off I-70 in green river utah to get to Salt Lake City and points beyond. The railroad cut is the tracks used to bring the coal in from coal country to the central utah power project, the largest power plant in utah.
Thanks, beat me to it.
"Some of the debris is still smoldering."
You'd think so, wouldn't you.
Does it have an alternative?
The truck drove from Ensign-Bickford Company, an explosives company, at the mouth of the canyon. The company is also known as Trojan, a friend of mine is the chief chemist there
File under 'whoops'.
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