The site of a fatal tanker-truck crash on Highway 502 at the Crowrock bridge last Wednesday afternoon is now clear after crews cleaned up the spilled tall oil cargo and removed the vehicle.
John Barr, supervisor for the Ministry of the Environment in Kenora, said workers finished cleaning up the site Monday with no problems.
“I think it went very well. We don’t anticipate any long-term damage,” he noted, referring to the 13,000 litres of tall oil that had leaked out of the tanker.
It was hauling 22,000 litres in total.
The non-toxic oil spilled into the embankment where the truck turned over, and into Rainy Lake and the nearby swamp.
“It’s not a petroleum product so it should be safe,” Barr said. “Of course, it’s not good for the environment, for the fish, but we tested the lake and it was at normals levels after the cleanup.”
Soil samples showed some saturation but Barr noted this eventually will return to normal.
The wrecked truck was removed from down the embankment over the weekend.
Meanwhile, the local OPP Technical Traffic Crash Investigation Unit still is looking into the cause of the accident that killed 49-year-old Percy L. England of Moose Jaw, Sask.
“It usually takes a number of weeks to reconstruct it,” Fort Frances OPP Cst. Cam Howard had noted last week. “They’ll look at the skid marks, the condition of the road, the point where the vehicle went off the road, and find out what happened.”
The truck was southbound on the bridge around 2:15 p.m. last Wednesday when it failed to complete a sharp turn, going off the road and down a steep embankment.
England, the lone occupant of the vehicle, was found dead when emergency services arrived at the scene.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
