More than 150 cars were disabled and countless others damaged after a tanker truck spilled sticky goo along nearly 40 miles on the Pennsylvania Turnpike Tuesday night.
The tanker began leaking driveway sealant fluid near New Castle, Pa., and continued to spill as it drove eastbound for 39 miles until it exited the turnpike at a service plaza in Oakmont, Turnpike. The driver was not aware until getting off the turnpike that the tanker was leaking.
Laura Frick was driving from Cleveland to New Jersey for Thanksgiving when the tar decimated her tires.
Turnpike officials didn’t have estimates of how much damage had been caused. They said 150 or more cars were disabled, including some state police and turnpike maintenance vehicles that had to be towed away after getting stuck, reported The Associated Press.
The tractor-trailer, owned by Marino Transportation Services, was hauling between 4,000 and 5,000 gallons of sealant when it got onto the rainy turnpike at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday night, Todd Leiss, an officer at the Turnpike Operations Center, told Pennsylvania’s Beaver County Times. State police said it appears the seal broke on the truck’s valve, but didn’t provide any more information into the cause of the spill.
Maintenance crews used sand to collect the goop and pushed it the shoulder with snow plows, but all lanes remained open to traffic Tuesday night, according to the Beaver County Times.
Bob King, a firefighter from Illinois traveling through Pennsylvania whose red Dodge Durango turned black from tar on Tuesday, told The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, “I drove down the shoulder of the road, scared to death to stop because I didn’t want anyone running into me. Cars were sliding everywhere. I’m glad I have four-wheel drive.”
While state police fielded calls from hundreds of motorists, they did not receive any reports of wrecks, the Tribune-Review reported
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