No HAZMAT spill at I-95 wreck; only diesel

 When a wreck occurred on I-95 near the Darien River Bridge, mm47, at 11:14 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 4, there was a report of a hazardous material spill.

However, Wesley Deverger, McIntosh County’s Emergency Management Director clarified Wednesday morning there was no hazardous material spill from the trailer of the commercial motor vehicle (CMV) that overturned after the vehicle ran into the back of a parked CMV.

Deverger said he had received a report of hazardous material on board while enroute to the scene Sunday night. “After getting on scene, it was corrosive material placard that was on the truck. After getting the bill of laden from the driver, the contents were car wash materials for cleaning which included isopropyl alcohol. So that was the only hazardous material on there. Everything was contained within the truck. There was no spill. The only concern was diesel fuel that had spilled on the roadway. They brought in sand from the wrecker companies to cover the roadway. We dammed up the median storm drain just to keep any fuel from getting in the storm drains. The trucking company is responsible for the cleanup.”

Deverger said “We went by our emergency response guide and precaution with the situation. So, if there had been a spill, things would have been different. But we didn’t have to worry about that.”

If the situation had been a hazardous material spill, Deverger said, the McIntosh County Fire Department volunteers are trained about HAZMAT awareness. And, if the spill had occurred, HAZMAT teams from Glynn County and Savannah would have been called.

At one point, while spreading the sand on the roadway and up righting the overturned trailer, both north and south lanes of I-95 were closed.

Then on Monday morning, at 6:09 a.m., another accident occurred northbound around mm 52, in which there was a fatality, so the northbound lane was closed. A sedan, driven by Gordon Rufus Simons, 83, of Greenwood, Indiana,  drove into the back of a CMV. Simons was pronounced dead at the scene.

Everything was being rerouted through Darien and McIntosh County.

The EMA director added, “I will say that all the agencies worked really good on that call. Everybody was pretty busy. Firefighters were helping directing traffic. Deputies were at the two different wrecks. At one point, traffic was shut down both ways. We were stretched thin. We had northbound, southbound, school traffic all coming through Darien. I thought everybody worked really good together.”