Cascade Township Michigan. At 0641 hrs on Oct 28th, Cascade Township Fire/Rescue was dispatched to an unknown accident involving a tanker truck that had slammed into the overpass structure at Whitneyville Ave while traveling Westbound on I-96. Upon arriving to the scene, dispatch notified units that there were no injuries. Fire units arrived and found a semi that had apparently hit the guardrail, flipping on its side and slamming the bridge structure. Amazingly, the driver (only occupant) was walking around when we arrived. His only complaint was a small laceration on his forehead. Literally, the only part of the tractor that was intact/recognizable was the drivers seat area. The crash completely destroyed the tractor of the semi and severely damaged the tanker trailer. The tanker contained power steering fluid and the truck was based out of Alberta Canada.Haz mat units were summoned as there was a large amount of fluid from the crashed tractor and fluid leaking from the tanker. Traffic was backed up for 6 miles for several hours as workers cleaned up the mess. Several heavy duty large wreckers worked to assemble the wreckage for transport to a local facility. At times, the large wreckers tugged and tugged to separate the mangled truck so it could be transported.Cascade fire personnel noted that this has to be one the worst appearing accidents in many years involving a semi. With damage like that, you wouldn't expect to find occupants walking around on the scene when you arrived. To say the least, the driver was one of the luckiest people on the road that day.
Several hours later, fire units cleared the scene as the haz mat clean-up crew remained to clean up the haz mat materials.
Steve BennettLance Korhorn
