Henderson, Ky.-The driver suffered multiple injuries, five homes were evacuated, and both lanes of Kentucky 69 were shut down for 6½ hours on Dec. 22 after a semi-truck/trailer loaded with 48,000 pounds of an explosives-grade ammonium nitrate swerved off the highway and tipped over on its side. Kentucky State Police Trooper Corey King said the tanker was transporting ammonium nitrate/fuel oil to an area coal mine when, for an unknown reason, it exited the right shoulder of the road in Ohio County and overturned. King said the five residences were within 2,500 feet of the crash and were voluntarily evacuated as a precaution. It took wreckers all day to pull the tanker from the ditch, but their main concern was making sure there were no chemicals leaking from the truck. “He came down the hill, he’s a loaded truck and he got close to the edge, and his front tire dropped off the shoulder,” Marty Vincent with Midland Power Company told the local press. “I believe the trucking company hauling the load was Memsco trucking in Evansville, Ind., and Armstrong Boot Mine in Cronos, Ky., was the load recipient,” King emailed Green Markets. “The integrity of the ammonium nitrate/fuel mixture was fine. It was usable because there were no escaping contents.” The driver was taken to the hospital, which would not disclose his condition, but a state police report said he had multiple injuries.
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