ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / August 30, 2000

GARYVILLE – An 18-wheel tank truck carrying 7,500 gallons of high sulfur diesel turned over yesterday morning on Airline Highway, and the driver of the truck was killed.

Because of the truck’s hazardous cargo, Airline Highway was closed to traffic for several hours until the diesel cargo could be off-loaded.

Authorities still don’t know what caused the truck to flip completely over and land in a drainage ditch. The driver, Ron Young, was ejected from thecab. He was rushed to River Parishes Hospital, where he was declareddead on arrival.

Bertram Madere, St. John the Baptist Parish director of Civil Defense, saidthe truck owned by the Petron Co. had just loaded up with the diesel fuelat Marathon/Ashland around 9:15 a.m. and was west-bound on AirlineHighway when the accident occurred.

“As far as we can determine there are no leaks on the truck,” said Madere.

“Nothing was spilled.”Madere said diesel is not considered flammable but is a very combustible material. He said it can ignite from a small spark and when lit, it burnshotter than gasoline.

“At first we had to treat this as a gasoline spill,” said Madere. “Until werealized it was diesel, we were worried about it going up.”St. John Parish deputies, Louisiana State Police and the volunteer firedepartments from Garyville and Reserve responded to the accident. Whenpolice realized the truck’s cargo was combustible, the Louisiana State Police Hazardous Material Unit ordered the shut down of Airline Highway, between the entrance to Marathon/Ashland Refinery and Louisiana Highway 641. Police re-routed westbound traffic back to LaPlace and theInterstate 10 entrance. East bound traffic was instructed to either takeRiver Road or I-10 via LA 641.

Madere and Marathon/Ashland officials said the diesel will be off-loaded by the hazardous materials unit of the Petron Co. and put onto another tanktruck. Since there are no leaks on the truck, Madere didn’t see anydifficulty in off-loading the diesel. However, in the interest of publicsafety, the westbound lanes of Airline Highway were to be closed to traffic until the off-loading was completed.

State police are continuing their investigation into the cause of the accident.

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