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06/08/04
Gas truck crash closes US 41 in Venice
VENICE -- A truck filled with about 1,800 gallons of liquid propane gas tipped over on the U.S. 41 Bypass late Monday morning, creating a potential disaster and closing a stretch of the busy road until well into the evening.
No one was injured, but the situation caused major headaches for emergency workers, motorists and businesses.
The road was reopened by 8:30 p.m. after being closed for more than nine hours.
Ferman Richard, 48, was driving a Coastal Propane truck north on the U.S. 41 Bypass about 10:45 a.m. when a white pickup truck pulled out in front of him near the Venice Plaza.
Richard said he put on his brakes and swerved to avoid the pickup. The truck nearly came to a stop, he said, but the weight of the load caused the tanker to jack-knife and flip.
Richard said he was frightened, especially when he heard a hissing sound, which turned out to be antifreeze leaking from the radiator.
Passersby ran to the accident scene and helped him get out of the door.
"I'm glad to be here," Richard said later.
Venice Fire Department Lt. Tony Fitzgerald said among the first to respond to the accident were workers with the Ajax Paving Co. who had been paving a private parking lot nearby.
"If it were not for them setting up their cones and barricades, we easily could have had someone run into the back of the truck," Fitzgerald said.
Officials closed the highway shortly after the wreck, from the U.S. 41 Bypass to Albee Farm Road.
"It was pretty congested for a while," said Venice Police Department Spokeswoman Pam Johnson. "People just had to find a different way to get around."
Motorists traveling south were routed onto U.S. 41 on Venice Island, and those going north were routed around the site onto Albee Farm Road.
Meanwhile, crews had to pump the propane into another tanker truck before burning the tank's remaining gas particles, a standard procedure in this type of situation.
A truck was called in from Ferrell Gas Co., and at about 1 p.m. the emergency workers began pumping the gas from one truck to the other. A lightning storm rolled through the area shortly after 3 p.m. and the pumping had to be stopped.
"As fuel passes through the hose, it builds up static electricity," Fitzgerald said. "With an electric storm, this can cause a catastrophic event."
He said that if a spark had hit the gas, the entire area would have become "a lake."
At 5:15 p.m., the last of the liquid propane was out of the truck and emergency workers used a lighter to ignite the fumes. It was expected to take two hours to completely burn all the remaining vapors.
Throughout the afternoon, most of the businesses in the area stayed open, although there was no business being done. The parking lot of the usually busy Kash n' Karry was vacant.
There were no evacuations, but some residents were prevented from getting to their homes near the site, an eyewitness said.
One business that did stay busy was the Taco Bell. Workers fed the fire and rescue personnel at the scene and made sure they had plenty to drink throughout the hot, sunny afternoon. The Red Cross also showed up just after 1 p.m. and provided meals and drinks for emergency workers well past 6 p.m.
The name of the pickup driver was not available at press time.
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