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http://www.freep.com/article/200907...-alert-truck-drivers--action-avoided-disaster
No deaths in I-75 blast; alert truck drivers' action avoided disaster
Tanker explosion to reroute 160,000 motorists
BY TAMMY STABLES BATTAGLIA, MATT HELMS, LORI HIGGINS, ZLATI MEYER, ANDREA FARMER, STEVE BYRNE and MEGHA SATYANARAYNA • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • July 16, 2009
Story summary: The gasoline tanker explosion on I-75 near 9 Mile in Hazel Park continues to smolder this morning, preventing crews from determining the condition of the roadway and damaged overpass.
Updated at 6:50 a.m.
Clearing smoke and and dawn's early light this morning revealed some details of the scene of Wednesday night's gasoline tanker explosion near 9 Mile that caused the overpass on the northbound side to collapse.
A stretch of I-75 was expected to be shut down indefinitely.
But miraculously, only one person suffered bruises in the massive explosion of more than 14,000 gallons of fuel.
The scene at 6:30 this morning revealed a truck flipped on its side in the northbound lane with its wheels facing northbound.
Lettuce and carrots from a Meijer truck are strewn throughout the highway.
Hazel Park Fire Chief Ray DeWalt said firefighters were still putting water on hot spots on the section of bridge that collapsed.
"There’s still something burning under there," DeWalt said. "We poured water on the section that collapsed and it boiled."
Earlier at 5 a.m., plumes of white smoke thick with the stench of burning wreckage were still wafting skyward as the mangled trucks continued to smolder.
At time of the accident, thick black smoke billowed from the scene and flames shot up 150 to 200 feet, snarling traffic on both sides. Authorities advised the thousands of commuters heading for work this morning to look for alternative routes.That section of I-75 -- from 8 Mile to I-696 -- carries an average of more than 160,000 vehicles a day, according to state traffic counts.
Two alert truck drivers’ evasive action after a car lost control on the 50-m.p.h. curve at 9 Mile prevented more devastation, according to the lead investigator.
"It’s amazing," Trooper Charles Kemp of the Michigan State Police North Post said this morning. "They did a good job being able to do what they did to control the vehicle to prevent additional events."
A 27-year-old Clawson man apparently lost control of his car while driving about 70 m.p.h. in the curve, which has a suggested speed limit of 50 m.p.h. He swerved into the tanker truck, driven by a 45-year-old Armada man. The cab and the trailer separated as the tanker, carrying 9,600 gallons of gasoline and 4,600 gallons of diesel fuel crashed, Kemp said.
But the 38-year-old Monroe man driving the Meijer semi tractor-trailer saw what was happening, moved over to give the tanker room and was able to avoid an even more devastating crash, said Kemp, who declined to release names or the tanker company.
"The guy in the Meijer’s vehicle observed what was going on, so he was making some arrangement to reposition his vehicle, so the tanker could reposition his vehicle to avoid things," Kemp said. "That’s why it’s important to be very observant of your surroundings. If a person’s not paying attention to things, they do not know how to react."
The tanker driver was treated and released from Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak.
I-75 is closed in both directions, with detours beginning at 7 Mile from the south and I-696 from the north.
Lt. Shannon Sims of the Michigan State Police post in Oak Park confirmed that the fire and heat from the tanker blast had caused the 9 Mile overpass above northbound I-75 to collapse.
"Until they get that fire out, it's going to be hard for us to get in there and determine what happened," Sims said.
An estimated 2,000 DTE Energy customers who lost power because of blown circuits had service restored overnight, Lorie Kessler, a spokeswoman for the utility company, said this morning.
Looking at the aftermath this morning, Lawrence Petrie, 50, of Hazel Park was surprised that no one was seriously hurt or killed.
"Wow, that's a mess," Petrie said as he walked over from his house a block away.
"They just got done working on that bridge, too. And that's the way out, the only way you can get from one side to another if you want to get to the other side of town," he said.
Thick smoke, giant flames keep police from accident
It was unlike anything they had ever seen.
Stuck in traffic when I-75 was shut down Wednesday night after a massive tanker explosion, drivers had no choice but to watch the aftermath unfold.
They described thick black smoke filling the sky, dancing flames and an overpass that crashed down onto the highway.
"Until they get that fire out, it's going to be hard for us to get in there and determine what happened and how many vehicles may have been involved," Lt. Shannon Sims of the Michigan State Police Metro North Post in Oak Park said.
Today motorists will be directed toward alternate routes that include the Lodge Freeway and surface streets including Woodward, Dequindre, John R and other nearby north-south routes. It also could push additional traffic onto I-94 in Detroit and the east-side suburbs.
"I wouldn't plan on using the freeway," said Michigan Department of Transportation spokesman Rob Morosi, because it could take a while to determine the roadway's safety and "it's almost a certainty we'll have to demolish the second half of that bridge."
Morosi said it was too early to tell whether the freeway pavement will require a complete rebuilding or a quicker resurfacing. He said the fire was confined mostly to a short section of pavement in the area immediately around the 9 Mile bridge.
That same 9 Mile overpass was rebuilt in early 2008.
Hundreds of motorists were on I-75 when the explosion occurred.
"Thankfully this didn't happen during rush-hour traffic," Sims said. Still, those who were in traffic or watching nearby Wednesday night were so mesmerized police had to force them back for safety.
Dorothy Mirasolo lives in Hazel Park, less than a half mile northwest of the explosion.
"I heard an explosion. I was like, 'What the heck is that?' At first I thought it was a car hitting a car. Then it sounded like shotguns going off and it was very close."
She said explosions kept happening over the course of five minutes.
She, along with hundreds of others, went on the pedestrian bridge, about a quarter mile north of the accident site to get a bird's-eye view of the happenings.
It was there that she noticed the bridge had collapsed.
"To me, when I first got there, it looked like it was OK. All of a sudden I noticed it was down. There was so much smoke you couldn't see it very well."
Sims confirmed it appeared the heat from the tanker blast and fire led the 9 Mile overpass above northbound I-75 to collapse.
State police on the scene asked people to return to their homes.
Witnesses say flames and black, billowing plumes of smoke were reaching 150 to 200 feet into the air and gas that reached the sewers along the freeway also caught fire.
This is the second tanker explosion in metro Detroit in 18 months. In January 2008, a tanker trailer holding 7,200 gallons of liquid butane exploded after it flipped off northbound I-75 on the Rouge River Bridge in the gap with the Dearborn Avenue exit ramp. The tanker exploded when it landed beneath the freeway near Delray Memorial Park at Melville and Leigh streets in southwest Detroit.
Killed in the crash was 60-year-old truck driver Ronald Martinez.
Generally, the cost of a rebuilding project is determined through insurance agencies covering vehicles involved in the wrecks, but Morosi said it was too early to deal with that issue.
"Right now our main focus is on reopening the roadway," Morosi said.
No deaths in I-75 blast; alert truck drivers' action avoided disaster
Tanker explosion to reroute 160,000 motorists
BY TAMMY STABLES BATTAGLIA, MATT HELMS, LORI HIGGINS, ZLATI MEYER, ANDREA FARMER, STEVE BYRNE and MEGHA SATYANARAYNA • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • July 16, 2009
Story summary: The gasoline tanker explosion on I-75 near 9 Mile in Hazel Park continues to smolder this morning, preventing crews from determining the condition of the roadway and damaged overpass.
Updated at 6:50 a.m.
Clearing smoke and and dawn's early light this morning revealed some details of the scene of Wednesday night's gasoline tanker explosion near 9 Mile that caused the overpass on the northbound side to collapse.
A stretch of I-75 was expected to be shut down indefinitely.
But miraculously, only one person suffered bruises in the massive explosion of more than 14,000 gallons of fuel.
The scene at 6:30 this morning revealed a truck flipped on its side in the northbound lane with its wheels facing northbound.
Lettuce and carrots from a Meijer truck are strewn throughout the highway.
Hazel Park Fire Chief Ray DeWalt said firefighters were still putting water on hot spots on the section of bridge that collapsed.
"There’s still something burning under there," DeWalt said. "We poured water on the section that collapsed and it boiled."
Earlier at 5 a.m., plumes of white smoke thick with the stench of burning wreckage were still wafting skyward as the mangled trucks continued to smolder.
At time of the accident, thick black smoke billowed from the scene and flames shot up 150 to 200 feet, snarling traffic on both sides. Authorities advised the thousands of commuters heading for work this morning to look for alternative routes.That section of I-75 -- from 8 Mile to I-696 -- carries an average of more than 160,000 vehicles a day, according to state traffic counts.
Two alert truck drivers’ evasive action after a car lost control on the 50-m.p.h. curve at 9 Mile prevented more devastation, according to the lead investigator.
"It’s amazing," Trooper Charles Kemp of the Michigan State Police North Post said this morning. "They did a good job being able to do what they did to control the vehicle to prevent additional events."
A 27-year-old Clawson man apparently lost control of his car while driving about 70 m.p.h. in the curve, which has a suggested speed limit of 50 m.p.h. He swerved into the tanker truck, driven by a 45-year-old Armada man. The cab and the trailer separated as the tanker, carrying 9,600 gallons of gasoline and 4,600 gallons of diesel fuel crashed, Kemp said.
But the 38-year-old Monroe man driving the Meijer semi tractor-trailer saw what was happening, moved over to give the tanker room and was able to avoid an even more devastating crash, said Kemp, who declined to release names or the tanker company.
"The guy in the Meijer’s vehicle observed what was going on, so he was making some arrangement to reposition his vehicle, so the tanker could reposition his vehicle to avoid things," Kemp said. "That’s why it’s important to be very observant of your surroundings. If a person’s not paying attention to things, they do not know how to react."
The tanker driver was treated and released from Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak.
I-75 is closed in both directions, with detours beginning at 7 Mile from the south and I-696 from the north.
Lt. Shannon Sims of the Michigan State Police post in Oak Park confirmed that the fire and heat from the tanker blast had caused the 9 Mile overpass above northbound I-75 to collapse.
"Until they get that fire out, it's going to be hard for us to get in there and determine what happened," Sims said.
An estimated 2,000 DTE Energy customers who lost power because of blown circuits had service restored overnight, Lorie Kessler, a spokeswoman for the utility company, said this morning.
Looking at the aftermath this morning, Lawrence Petrie, 50, of Hazel Park was surprised that no one was seriously hurt or killed.
"Wow, that's a mess," Petrie said as he walked over from his house a block away.
"They just got done working on that bridge, too. And that's the way out, the only way you can get from one side to another if you want to get to the other side of town," he said.
Thick smoke, giant flames keep police from accident
It was unlike anything they had ever seen.
Stuck in traffic when I-75 was shut down Wednesday night after a massive tanker explosion, drivers had no choice but to watch the aftermath unfold.
They described thick black smoke filling the sky, dancing flames and an overpass that crashed down onto the highway.
"Until they get that fire out, it's going to be hard for us to get in there and determine what happened and how many vehicles may have been involved," Lt. Shannon Sims of the Michigan State Police Metro North Post in Oak Park said.
Today motorists will be directed toward alternate routes that include the Lodge Freeway and surface streets including Woodward, Dequindre, John R and other nearby north-south routes. It also could push additional traffic onto I-94 in Detroit and the east-side suburbs.
"I wouldn't plan on using the freeway," said Michigan Department of Transportation spokesman Rob Morosi, because it could take a while to determine the roadway's safety and "it's almost a certainty we'll have to demolish the second half of that bridge."
Morosi said it was too early to tell whether the freeway pavement will require a complete rebuilding or a quicker resurfacing. He said the fire was confined mostly to a short section of pavement in the area immediately around the 9 Mile bridge.
That same 9 Mile overpass was rebuilt in early 2008.
Hundreds of motorists were on I-75 when the explosion occurred.
"Thankfully this didn't happen during rush-hour traffic," Sims said. Still, those who were in traffic or watching nearby Wednesday night were so mesmerized police had to force them back for safety.
Dorothy Mirasolo lives in Hazel Park, less than a half mile northwest of the explosion.
"I heard an explosion. I was like, 'What the heck is that?' At first I thought it was a car hitting a car. Then it sounded like shotguns going off and it was very close."
She said explosions kept happening over the course of five minutes.
She, along with hundreds of others, went on the pedestrian bridge, about a quarter mile north of the accident site to get a bird's-eye view of the happenings.
It was there that she noticed the bridge had collapsed.
"To me, when I first got there, it looked like it was OK. All of a sudden I noticed it was down. There was so much smoke you couldn't see it very well."
Sims confirmed it appeared the heat from the tanker blast and fire led the 9 Mile overpass above northbound I-75 to collapse.
State police on the scene asked people to return to their homes.
Witnesses say flames and black, billowing plumes of smoke were reaching 150 to 200 feet into the air and gas that reached the sewers along the freeway also caught fire.
This is the second tanker explosion in metro Detroit in 18 months. In January 2008, a tanker trailer holding 7,200 gallons of liquid butane exploded after it flipped off northbound I-75 on the Rouge River Bridge in the gap with the Dearborn Avenue exit ramp. The tanker exploded when it landed beneath the freeway near Delray Memorial Park at Melville and Leigh streets in southwest Detroit.
Killed in the crash was 60-year-old truck driver Ronald Martinez.
Generally, the cost of a rebuilding project is determined through insurance agencies covering vehicles involved in the wrecks, but Morosi said it was too early to deal with that issue.
"Right now our main focus is on reopening the roadway," Morosi said.
