Traffic flow back to normal on US-23, M-14 following acid spill
Traffic is back to normal today on Southbound US-23 and Westbound M-14 following Friday's early morning closure and backups after a semi-truck spilled a shipping container full of benzene dicarboxylic acid on the road at 7:25 a.m. Friday. The US-23 and M-14 interchange was reopened Friday night at 10:20 p.m., according to the Michigan State Police.
Due to the danger of explosion, crews had to remove the hazardous liquid, which forced the highway to be closed down. A private HAZMAT contractor was hired to oversee the decontamination of Westbound M-14, and dump trucks poured between 50-100 gallons of sand on the spill to form a barricade to contain the acid.
The driver of the truck that spilled the acid was transported by Huron Valley Ambulance to the University of Michigan Hospital soon after the accident and was in stable condition. One other injury occurred when a tow company worker was exposed to the acid product when he dropped a piece of equipment in a standing pool of it and was splashed. He was decontaminated by the Washtenaw HAZMET Team and refused transport to U-M Hospital.
Officials said the acid, which is used in the manufacture of food and beverage plastics, dyes, perfumes and medicines, posed no danger to residents in the area.
Comments
Brandon
Sun, Jul 8, 2012 : 2:55 a.m.
I drove by this on 23S to 14 West at approx 7:50 am. Cars heading Westbound on 14 were just slowly passing this tractor trailer. I could only see 2 two trucks on scene at that time, although state police were probably directing traffic. It also looked to me as if the driver just ran off the road and into the ditch on the right side of the road, which rolled the truck over. All of this adds up to no one on scene who had any idea what was in the truck, seeing as nearly 30 minutes after the incident, no one was aware of the dangers. With that said, how was this truck labeled? It must not have been labeled properly for this to have occurred.
Macabre Sunset
Sun, Jul 8, 2012 : 1:18 a.m.
What would be interesting, and I'm guessing this blog has no interest at this point, would be a discussion of the cleanup and who pays for it. Are there fines assessed to this trucking company? Surely there are policies in place to hold trucking companies responsible so that only the most experienced and competent truckers are carrying hazardous materials. I don't know what caused the accident, but if it was driver error, it is completely unacceptable that a trucking company could shut down a major expressway for most of a day, as well as expose people to this material.
kk
Sat, Jul 7, 2012 : 7 p.m.
Exposure to benzene is a known cause of cancer - leukemia, to be specific. I hope care has been taken to ensure that anyone involved in the accident and clean up were thoroughly decontaminated and informed of the possible risks. I also wonder if, in this form, the benzene is able to volatize into the air?
John
Sat, Jul 7, 2012 : 6:16 p.m.
From reading this story, I'm a bit concerned the way this incident was handled. I don't understand why the country has its own specialized HAZMAT team with specialized vehicles, equipment, etc. but had to call in an outside company to contain and clean up the material. I also don't understand why a tow truck driver was allowed to work over a pool of the material without any protective equipment (gloves, suit, etc), I would have expected the police or HAZMAT team to prevent him from doing that until something was put down (sand, sobent pads) to prevent any possibility or stepping in or dropping/splashing the material. Here is my bigger concern though, the chemical mentioned in the article is benzenedicarboxylic acid. This chemical is also known as Terephthalic acid and is used in the production of PET plastics. This chemical is slightly toxic but it has a ignition temperature of over 900 degrees so I don't understand why the article mentions there being a danger of explosion. Were they afraid that it would ignite the trucks fuel tank? I also want to point out that although its somewhat acidic the chemical has a pH of around 4 unless its mixed with another acid. To put that in perspective water has a pH of 7 and a glass of wine has a similar pH of 3-4. Lemon juice and vinegar have a pH of around 2 and sulfuric acid has a pH of 1. Is it possible there is a mistake in the chemical name or the acid was mixed with other chemicals?
BornNRaised
Mon, Jul 9, 2012 : 6:44 p.m.
Sounds like you should've showed up and provided your expert opinion to the people on scene. Clearly they didn't have all the facts you do. lol
Chris
Sun, Jul 8, 2012 : 1:22 a.m.
The HAZMAT team may simply not be equipped for a clean-up of this site (as measured by gallons of item spilled). So bring in a third party expert and be done with it. I do agree it sounds like the tow truck driver was possibly where he should not have been...UNLESS the HAZMAT team knew the risk and allowed him there. We won't know. At least he's alright.
LaMusica
Sat, Jul 7, 2012 : 5:20 p.m.
Wow, must have been an awful cleanup, especially in the heat! Does anyone know the environmental impact of this spill?
a2xarob
Sat, Jul 7, 2012 : 5:15 p.m.
What happened to the cars that were on that area of road behind the spill when the road was closed? Did they have to stay there until 10:30 last night? If not how did they exit the roadway?
DennisP
Sat, Jul 7, 2012 : 4:24 p.m.
50-100 gallons of sand to contain a train-car full of acid spilled? I'm guessing what happened is the truck was transporting a sea-land container that carried acid and dropped the container causing some of the acid to spill? I can't see one or two drums of sand holding back a full train car load of acid.
justcurious
Sat, Jul 7, 2012 : 5:41 p.m.
They still never corrected that erroneous information. Where is Kyle F. when we need him?
jcj
Sat, Jul 7, 2012 : 5:32 p.m.
I bet they meant 50 - 100 yds of sand.
bereasonable
Sat, Jul 7, 2012 : 4:03 p.m.
Thanks to all that responded to this incident. Conditions were extreme for those required to remain throughout the day .
swcornell
Sat, Jul 7, 2012 : 3:40 p.m.
Wow, what a mess both environmentally and traffic wise.
Homeland Conspiracy
Sat, Jul 7, 2012 : 3:22 p.m.
They had to clear away all the hippies after they heard there was a acid spill
jns131
Sun, Jul 8, 2012 : 12:10 p.m.
Totally psychedelic dude.