Reprinted with Permission
Friday, February 23, 2001The crash involved a flaming truckload of Canadian whiskey and 91 barrels of toxic waste.
By MATT CHITTUM
The Roanoke Times
LEXINGTON - It was a familiar scene in a familiar place, only this time no one died.
About 20 cars and tractor-trailers crashed into a half-mile-long heap on southbound Interstate 81 at the Buffalo Creek bridge Thursday morning in heavy snow.
It was just over two years ago that a 15-car pileup in the northbound lanes over Buffalo Creek at the same hour killed four people and injured more than 20.
Thursday's crash involved more vehicles, a flaming truckload of Canadian whiskey and 91 barrels of toxic waste, yet there were only a few injuries, none considered life-threatening.
"You really have the worst fears go through your mind, and then to get here and find there's no fatalities and no serious injuries, it's a relief," said Lexington Fire Chief Robert Foresman.
The paramount concerns Thursday quickly became the fire and the toxic waste, and their proximity to each other. Though the trailer holding the waste was damaged, none of the barrels leaked, and the waste posed no threat, state police said.
Police could only guess at how many cars were involved in the 8:15 a.m. pileup. Nor were they sure how the chain reaction started. A charred sedan and minivan were at the front of the wreckage.
Louise Shifflet, 25, who was driving some high school students from near Winchester to a forensics competition in Tennessee, said it was snowing furiously, but not much was sticking on the road.
As the small bus she was driving came down the hill toward the bridge, Shifflet noticed the tractor-trailers a short distance ahead of her begin to swerve, then jackknife. One of the trailers knocked the bus into the concrete wall at the side of bridge.
By that time, one of the trucks in front of her was on fire. Other cars and trucks collided behind the bus. One truck came to rest with the front driver's-side wheel hanging over the edge of the bridge. A clear liquid that was on fire streamed toward the bus.
Shifflet, another teacher and their husbands hustled the four students out the emergency exit of the bus.
"You know those elementary school drills? They pay off," Shifflet said.
Volunteer firefighters and rescue workers snatched five people from the front of the pileup and took them to Stonewall Jackson Hospital in Lexington.
Firefighters battled the weather to get their vehicles close enough to fight the fire, which was fueled by cases of Crown Royal and Seagram's 7 blended whiskey.
Smoke still rolled from the skeletons of two tractor-trailers at 10:30 a.m. The air smelled of alcohol, and firefighters poured water on the burning trucks to keep the fire from spreading to the toxic waste, which they feared might blow up.
About 11 a.m., a small explosion went off, and flames spewed from the side of one of the trucks, causing a stampede of firefighters and tow truck drivers. It turned out that a tire had exploded from the heat.
At the other end of the wreck, a communal spirit took over. Truckers with sleeper cabs took in Shifflet and her passengers to keep them warm. People shared containers of Mott's applesauce that had spilled from a damaged tractor-trailer.
"It was amazing to see how everyone pulled together," said Tom Stimple, 31, who was traveling with Shifflet. After six hours, rescue workers took them to the fire station in Lexington, where they awaited a ride back home to Frederick County.
An eight-mile stretch of the highway, from Lexington south ward, was closed and was expected to remain that way until at least midnight. Southbound traffic was routed onto U.S. 11.
Once the burned debris was cleared, a hazardous-materials team from the Roanoke Fire-EMS Department was to take over to remove the barrels of waste.
Capt. Charles Compton of the state police said troopers were interviewing everyone involved as part of a crash reconstruction effort that could take days.
A Virginia Department of Transportation bridge inspector was also on the scene to check the concrete span more than 100 feet above Buffalo Creek.
Many on the scene couldn't help but remark on the similarities of Thursday's events to those of Jan. 3, 1999.
Just after 8 a.m. on that snowy, foggy day, as a state trooper investigated a two-vehicle crash near the bridge on I-81 north, a tractor-trailer lost control on the slick, steep hill leading down to the bridge and skidded into the trooper's car. That set off a chain reaction that ultimately involved eight tractor-trailers, six cars and the police cruiser.
Many of the same police and rescue personnel who pulled the injured and dead from that pileup responded to Thursday's crash, including Foresman, the Lexington fire chief.
"This stretch of the interstate has seen some devastation," he said.
Four Injured In I-81 Wrecks
by B. Lynn DiBiase
The News Gazette
At about 2:45 p.m., Aleda Ingram, public relations director at Stonewall Jackson Hospital, confirmed that no one transported to SJH died from injuries received in the Thursday morning wreck on Interstate 81.
Four victims, two each from two tractor-trailers which had caught fire after the crash on the southbound Buffalo Creek Bridge, were brought to SJH between 8:30 and 9 a.m., according to Ingram.
At 3:15 p.m. Lexington Fire Chief Robert Foresman estimated cleanup would take an additional six hours at the scene. Some travelers are being given shelter and food at area fire stations until the interstate is opened later tonight.
Innumerable cars and tractor-trailers were involved in multiple wrecks near Buffalo Creek Bridge at about 8 a.m., shortly after snow began to cover the roadway.
Minutes after a call went out to authorities regarding a car on fire along the side of the road at the bridge, Rockbridge County dispatchers reported a three-car wreck including one tractor-trailer which was on fire at the same location.
As firefighters and rescue workers responded to the scene, the southbound lanes turned into a three-mile chain of delayed vehicles knotted with cars and jack-knifed trucks in ditches alongside the road.
The Virginia Department of Transportation issued a detour for motorists to take exit 195 to U.S. 11 southbound, follow the bypass to re-enter the interstate at exit 180 at Fancy Hill.
There were numerous other weather-related accidents on Rockbridge area secondary roads Thursday morning.
Saturday, February 24, 2001
FIERY WRECKS DAMAGE I-81 BRIDGE OVER BUFFALO CREEK
Pileup forces partial closing of bridge
The southbound passing lane between mile markers 186 and 184 will be closed for at least three days while repairs are made
By JAY
CONLEY
The Roanoke
Times
LEXINGTON - An intense fire resulting from a 25-car pile up Thursday on southbound Interstate 81 damaged the Buffalo Creek bridge so badly that a two-mile stretch of the interstate will be reduced to one lane for at least three days while the bridge is repaired.
About 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel and gasoline leaked onto the bridge and into the creek, state police said.
The fire, caused by fuel from cars and tractor-trailers and a truckload of whiskey, burned the concrete surface of the bridge, making it brittle. It was crumbling Friday, said Eric Gorton, a VDOT spokesman.
The bridge is structurally sound, Gorton said, but its concrete surface will be replaced beginning at 8 a.m. today. A section of guardrail mangled by the pileup will also be repaired, as will some minor asphalt damage to the interstate leading up to the bridge.
The southbound passing lane of I-81 will be closed from mile marker 186 to just past the bridge at mile marker 184. Gorton wouldn't give a definite date of when the work would be completed.
"It could be done by Monday," Gorton said.
Five people were taken to a Lexington hospital, but no one was killed in the pileup, which fire officials and state police said was caused by two separate accidents that occurred within moments of each other.
"It was a miracle," said Bob Weikel, hazardous materials coordinator for Rockbridge County. "If you could have seen some of the torn-up cars."
The first pileup occurred around 8:15 a.m. when a group of cars and tractor-trailers collided on the bridge during a heavy snowstorm. According to Louise Shifflet, who was driving a small school bus carrying four high school students and three other adults, a chain reaction began when tractor-trailers in front of her began to swerve, then jackknife.
About six trucks and 9 cars were involved in that collision.
The second collision involved about five trucks and six cars just north of the bridge when drivers who saw the accident ahead tried to stop on the slick road but couldn't, according to state police.
Some of the vehicles on the bridge were on fire by the time firefighters arrived.
When the truckload of Canadian whiskey ignited, it intensified the heat from the fuel fire.
"That alcohol burns pretty hot," said Weikel.
Firefighters worked to prevent the fire from reaching another wrecked truck that contained 94 barrels of toxic waste.
Weikel said that truck was just 30 feet away from the fire. Three of the barrels were leaking and 14 had been damaged in the crash. The barrels contained heavy metals, carcinogens and several other toxins, Weikel said.
"It would have exploded probably," had the fire not been contained, said state police Sgt. Michael Bailey, who was at the scene late Thursday evening. "It was highly flammable."
Once the fire was contained, W.E.L. Inc., a hazardous materials company from Concord, moved in to remove the barrels from the truck. That was completed around 2 a.m.
The wrecked vehicles were then removed and one lane across the bridge was opened around 7 a.m., said Gorton.
Weikel said more hazardous material crews will return Monday to finish the cleanup of fuel that spilled onto the ground below the bridge.