The wreckage from tractor trailer accidents can make a huge mess on the road, and the massive vehicles often block the roadway for some time before the road can get cleared. Sometimes, the contents of a truck will spill out when the truck gets into a wreck. If the truck is carrying books, clothing, or other household or non-hazardous items, it can take a while to get the cargo cleaned up, but it doesn’t create a threat to the environment or people in the area if traffic near the accident scene is properly diverted until the road is clear. If the truck contains hazardous cargo, there is a potential risk to environmental and human health and safety if the cargo spills in a crash,
A recent accident involving a tanker truck carrying hydrogen peroxide created such a threat when the truck overturned in the median of I-22. Since there was a hazardous substance involved in that accident, there was a lot more to clean it up than removing the wrecked truck from the road. The wreck closed the highway for hours, as emergency personnel worked to keep people at least a half of a mile away from it because a crack in the tank of the truck was releasing hydrogen peroxide vapor into the air. The driver did not get hurt in the wreck, and the vapor did not catch fire. Cleanup efforts after the crash included air quality monitoring to check for dangerous levels of the vapor as well as dilution of the hydrogen peroxide to a safe concentration. Local fire departments brought tanker trucks full of water to the accident scene, where they used the water to dilute the hydrogen peroxide. Air quality monitoring equipment got used to ensure that the vapors were not creating a risk of fire or explosion.
Hydrogen peroxide, in a highly diluted form, is safe for use as an antiseptic and many people have it at home in their medicine cabinets. Concentrated hydrogen peroxide, which is what as contained in the tanker that overturned, is an irritant, which means that it can harm skin, eyes, and respiratory organs. It is also corrosive, so it can burn skin and eat through different substances. Hydrogen peroxide vapors are flammable and can catch fire and even explode. It is fortunate that none of the potentially dangerous things that could have happened in this recent tractor trailer wreck came to pass. The accident is an illustration of the potential danger of trucking accidents involving hazardous materials.
Barrett Law PLLC: Helping People Who Get Hurt In Mississippi Trucking Accidents
Accidents involving tractor trailers can cause serious injury, fatalities, and property damage. Some tractor trailer accidents can even spill hazardous cargo onto the roadway, increasing the risk of serious injury, death, environmental harm and property damage. To learn more about how Mississippi trucking accident victims can file a claim for damages that they sustained as the result of a Mississippi truck wreck, call the knowledgeable Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney at Barrett Law PLLC, at 1 (601) 790-1505 today.
