Highway 191 reopened after diesel spill

BURNSIDE JUNCTION, Ariz.

A commercial vehicle hauling gasoline was involved in a crash Thursday night, according to Arizona Department of transportation.

Steve Elliot, Arizona Department of Transportation, said they had closed the road from Burnside Junction to the Pinion turn off at 10:45 p.m. Thursday night. The road finally reopened at approximately 2:15 p.m. Friday.

“Approximately 150-200 gallons of diesel spilled from the commercial vehicle’s fuel tanks,” said Steve Elliot.

Because of this, another “tanker” had to remove 8,000 gallons of gasoline from the commercial vehicle that was involved in the accident. This, Elliot said took quite a bit of time.

Elliot said that they weren’t involved with the investigation of the accident, but he said from his understanding the accident wasn’t caused by the commercial vehicle.

“The responsible party in the crash, which was not the driver of the commercial vehicle, it was the vehicle that apparently crossed over and hit the responsible vehicle,” said Elliot. “That responsible party is hiring a contractor to clean up the fuel.”

The contractor was approved by ADOT and will clean up any fuel that had spilled; they will also coordinate with Navajo Environmental Protection Agency on requirements to make sure that any furl spilled in the soil will be remediated.

“We don’t investigate the crash but we do information on the closure,” said Elliot. “I did hear it may have been fatal, but I’m not sure. That’s may have something to do with the length of the closure.”

At the scene this morning workers from Arizona Department of Transportation weren’t able to give any information about the accident. Vehicles that wanted to go through the highway were stopped and head to turn around to find another route.

Calls and messages to Lt. Dempsey Harvey from the Navajo Police Department in Chinle weren’t returned.

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