NEWBURYPORT — Police continue to investigate a four-vehicle accident on Interstate 95 that sent 10 people to the hospital and caused a tanker to leak thousands of gallons of gasoline, causing a nightmarish traffic jam and an unknown environmental impact.
The crash left two people critically injured, an Everett man and a 14-year-old Chelsea girl.
Cleanup crews and environmental experts worked through the night to gauge the damage done by the 8,000-gallon gasoline spill in the northbound lanes of I-95, a quarter-mile north of the Route 113 exit in Newburyport and less than a mile from the Merrimack River.
The accident's impact was widespread and immediate. With debris strewn across both sides of the highway, including the tanker across all four lanes on the northbound side, I-95 was shut down in both directions for nearly eight hours.
As fuel leaked from the tanker, fumes permeated the air, forcing a nearby neighborhood to be evacuated and electricity and gas lines to be shut off. Gasoline spilled into storm drains leading to the Merrimack River, diverting boat traffic and causing an impact on wildlife that is being monitored.
State police investigators said they believe the chaos began yesterday morning when a driver traveling north on I-95 with seven people in a sport utility vehicle, including several children, lost control of the vehicle.
An eyewitness said traffic was moving smoothly about 65 mph in both directions at 9:15 a.m., when the vehicle suddenly flipped over, sailing across the highway divide and into oncoming traffic.
To avoid a collision, the fuel tanker driver, Donald Branham, 52, of New Hampshire slammed on his brakes, and the tank began to jackknife around the truck's cab.
"I could see smoke and I started to slow down," said truck driver Eddie Sphere, who said he was driving a hundred feet or so behind the tanker when it began to skid. "I saw the car flipping. I saw the tank flipping on its right side. There was a lot of smoke coming out of his tires."
Witnesses told police the driver of a 2001 Ford Expedition, Salma Aguilar, 32, of Everett was weaving in and out of traffic, possibly triggering the chain-reaction accident. Aguilar has not been charged.
In a matter of moments, three passenger vehicles and the tanker were involved and 10 people injured, two severely.
"We got a report of a three-, possibly a four-car crash originating on the southbound side," state police Lt. James Freeman said. "Two minivans were involved. We believe the two minivans collided, and one rolled out onto the southbound, and one rolled into the northbound lane."
Aguilar's Expedition lay in the southbound lane for much of the day, its windshield smashed and torn away.
Two people ejected from Aguilar's vehicle, the unidentified Everett man and Chelsea teenager, remained in critical condition last night, state police said. Both were flown by medical helicopter to Anna Jaques Hospital.
One of the vehicles involved was a Toyota Corolla operated by Marianne Curcio, 29, of Washington Street in Newburyport. Curcio, who was driving alone, was treated and released from Anna Jaques Hospital. Two people driving in a Honda Odyssey also were treated at nearby hospitals.
As emergency and cleanup crews descended on the scene, southbound traffic was rerouted to Interstate 495 south in Salisbury, causing traffic to back up for miles into New Hampshire. Northbound traffic was rerouted through the Scotland Road exit to Route 113 and Route 1.
The detours caused bottlenecks at intersections throughout the city. Emergency personnel worked feverishly to contain the gasoline spill, using foam and fume retardants while building berms around the storm drains to limit the river's exposure to the gasoline.
Shortly after the accident, Newburyport fire Chief Stephen Cutter ordered utilities in the area of Laurel Road, a side street off Ferry Lane, be shut off after a high vapor reading was detected.
"Right now, what we're trying to do is minimize the oil spill, and we're very concerned for the homes in the Laurel Drive area," Newburyport Marshal Thomas Howard said yesterday morning. "There's a high level of gas in the air, so we're shutting the power and evacuating all the homes."
Mary Zinck of 6 Laurel Road was among those evacuated.
"My sister was at the house waiting for the kids to get off the school bus," Zinck said, noting as soon as her children arrived, her sister took the children to her Rowley home. "I was homeless all day, begging my neighbors for lunch."
A home serving adults with developmental disabilities on the opposite side of the highway also was evacuated, Howard said.
Freeman said an accident reconstruction team tried to determine the cause of the crash. Of the 10 injured, six were treated at Anna Jaques Hospital, two of whom were admitted. Others were sent to Portsmouth, Merrimack Valley and Exeter hospitals.
The driver of the fuel tanker, owned by Aranosian Oil of Concord, N.H., was not injured and stood by throughout the day as fire officials from Byfield, Newbury, West Newbury, Groveland, Amesbury, Salisbury, Rowley and Newburyport sought to minimize vapors by spraying the tanker with foam.
Officials with the Environmental Protection Agency were on hand as were state hazardous materials teams and at least five teams from Newburyport's Enpro Environmental Cleanup Services. Experts were attempting to absorb the spill by dumping sand along the spill site.
Shortly after 2 p.m., personnel righted the tractor-trailer and moved it farther down the highway in the southern direction. Crews then worked to drain any residual gasoline left in the truck's barrel.
At 3:30 p.m., the southbound side of the highway was reopened, and traffic began flowing with residual backups. Shortly after 4 p.m., traffic on both sides was flowing, and police said the traffic was improved.
Staff writers Kirsten Michener and Victor Tine contributed to this report.
