Only the Ministry of the Environment and Tri-Mac remain on hand to assess and clean up the scene of Wednesday afternoon’s fatal tanker-truck accident at Crowrock.
While one source told the Times yesterday that the tanker had not leaked its cargo of tall oil, the OPP confirmed that an amount had leached into the embankment and nearby swamp.
Police did not know how much had leaked out.
A small quantity also spilled into Rainy Lake but the Ministry of the Environment has since cleaned it off the water’s surface.
The truck still had not been removed from the scene as of this morning.
Meanwhile, the local OPP Technical Traffic Crash Investigation Unit is still 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,” noted Fort Frances OPP Cst. Cam Howard. “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 travelling southbound on the bridge around 2:15 p.m. 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
