A semi and a tanker truck crashed along Interstate 80 in Clinton Township early Tuesday morning, resulting in a spill of slippery oil sludge on and around the highway.
There were no injuries, according to Gerry Rea, chief of the Clintonville Volunteer Fire Department, who responded to the early-morning crash near the 35 mile marker in the eastbound lane of I-80.
A tractor-trailer driven by Gennadiy Kreymerman, 61, of Brooklyn, New York, was headed east about 1:40 a.m. with a load of used vehicles when it lost a set of dual wheels and became disabled, Rea said.
A tanker truck driven by Kenneth Wayne Hogue, 51, of Salem, Ohio, ran over the wheels and then crashed into Kreymerman’s truck, which was still on the roadway, Rea said.
The tanker was carrying about 3,300 gallons of waste material that consisted of a mixture of oil and water. It smashed into the guiderail and overturned, spilling about 2,000 gallons of its cargo along the berm of the road, across the highway and into the median, Rea said.
The interstate was closed between exits 35 and 42 while crews cleaned up the spill. Traffic was detoured off I-80 at Exit 35, according to PennDOT.
The interstate reopened to traffic just before 2 p.m.
Rea said the spill wasn’t hazardous, but it posed a safety risk due to the slippery nature of the waste material.
Franklin state police say their investigation into the crash is continuing.
