Tractor-trailer crash spills chemicals into stream along Bellbridge Road in Lincoln Borough
LINCOLN, Pa. (KDKA) — A tractor-trailer overturned in Lincoln Borough, leaking chemicals and diesel fuel into a nearby creek on Monday.
For a better part of the afternoon, crews were getting 55-gallon drum barrels out of the creek along Bellbridge Road in Lincoln and making sure none of the chemicals in them contaminated the water down below.
Allegheny County Emergency Services says it was around 1:05 a.m. when the truck went off the road and into the creek. Fire, police and EMS were at the scene within 10 minutes. Neighbors woke up to all the commotion outside.
"We could see just all the lights through the windows. That's when we started looking out. We couldn't even see the truck until one of the cars had moved after 20 minutes or so," neighbor Lukas Gaydos said.
The driver told officials he lost his brakes and flew off the road. He was taken to Forbes Hospital with minor injuries.
"The bend is a hairpin turn, so it's a bad bend," Gaydos said.
First responders learned the truck was carrying 55-gallon drums of chemicals and the truck was leaking diesel fuel with a creek under it. Allegheny County hazmat team responded along with the state Department of Environmental Protection. The creek is a couple of hundred yards away from the Monongahela River, where it lets out.
"Usually, tractor-trailers don't come down this hill. They try to avoid it," Gaydos told KDKA TV.
The county says the collection dams were set up to get the contaminants. It appears the contamination was localized and didn't reach the Mon River. Air quality does not appear to be impacted and there was no fire hazard.
For neighbors, it was more of an inconvenience than anything else with the road being closed for hours.
The trailer was removed a little after 10 a.m. After that, it was getting the barrels and the truck out of the creek that took hours.
The truck company, JMT Group, is apparently cooperating with first responders. KDKA-TV reached out to them and has not heard back.
The DEP says it has been monitoring the creek and found no impact on aquatic life. It will continue to monitor the creek through the cleanup process.
Bellbridge Road is still closed.
