Tanker hits bridge, explodes on I-30 in Mesquite

A fuel tanker truck wrecked and caught fire early Monday, igniting an explosive inferno that shut down Interstate 30 in both directions for much of the morning rush hour.
The fire was mostly out a little over an hour after the accident, but firefighters were letting spilled fuel burn itself out 90 minutes after the accident. The tanker driver escaped without injury. [Other reports say the driver was taken to Parkland Hospital.]

Witnesses said the driver of a gravel truck may have been involved in the accident. The gravel truck was observed leaving the scene immediately after the explosion.

The accident, at 4:30 a.m., happened under the Big Town Boulevard overpass. Texas Department of Transportation engineers examined the span for structural defects and traffic was permitted to resume.

The westbound lanes of I-30 were moving again by 8:30, but cleanup was still under way in the eastbound lanes, which remained shut down. Samuell Boulevard is an alternate route. A similar fiery crash in October 2008 forced the demolition and reconstruction of an overpass on U.S. Highway 175 in South Dallas.
By Cynthia Vega at WFAA News, Dallas
Photos from WFAA News
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A tanker truck hauling 7,500 gallons of diesel fuel rammed into a highway bridge in Mesquite this morning, bursting into flames and shutting down traffic in both directions on Interstate 30. The accident occurred some time around 5 a.m. The westbound lanes of the interstate reopened just before 7:30, but the eastbound lanes were expected to remain shut for hours. According to authorities, the tanker was traveling east on I-30 under the Big Town Boulevard overpass when it hit a portion of the overpass and caught fire.

A Mesquite fire official said the driver was taken to Parkland hospital with burn injuries of unknown severity. The driver was conscious at the scene of the wreck, the fire official said.

The bridge that was hit is new — it was completed around the end of 2008, said Mark Pettit, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation.

He said the cost of repairing any damage to the bridge would be the responsibility of the driver and his company, not the taxpayers.

“The state will pursue his insurance,” Pettit said.

There were no immediate reports of other injuries.

“It was just a huge ball of fire – black smoke,” a witness to the crash told Fox 4 News.

Hours after the accident, charred hunks of the tanker truck were visible, wedged under the Big Town Boulevard overpass at I-30. According to TrafficPulse, a private traffic monitoring company, cars began backing up around 5 a.m. By 7:15 a.m., westbound traffic was backed up to the LBJ Freeway.

The fire was extinguished about an hour after the accident occurred. Crews that specialize in handling hazardous materials were sent to the scene.
By Chris Dell and Shaina Zucker in The Dallas Morning News
Video from NBCDFW News