Disaster Averted When Semi Hits N.Y. Gas Valve
Source The Buffalo News, N.Y.
Sept. 09--Emergency officials say it was sheer luck that the tractor-trailer that veered off the Thruway in Bowmansville before dawn Friday and crashed into a natural gas line valve did not catch fire.
It could have been a lot worse.
Had the out-of-control truck sparked a flame, an explosion could have ripped through the neighborhood.
The tractor-trailer also came within "just a foot" of a major gas line that could have caused an even more serious incident, especially if the accident had started a fire, officials said.
The accident occurred at about 2:37 a.m. when the driver, Czeslaw Szczpaniec, 51, of Queens, who may have had a stroke, lost control of a 2006 Volvo truck, state police said. Szczpaniec, who was reportedly "in and out of consciousness at the scene," was listed in critical condition late Friday in Erie County Medical Center.
Authorities said Szczpaniec's truck first sideswiped another vehicle on the westbound side of the Thruway, near Harris Hill Road.
Next, the tractor-trailer went over the grass center median, careened across both eastbound lanes, then crashed through a guardrail before barreling down an embankment, where it obliterated a small shed containing a National Fuel gas line valve.
A National Fuel spokeswoman explained that the valve is used to reduce pressure from a high-pressure gas line, which comes above ground at the shed. The valve, called a regulator, then distributes natural gas through service lines.
The truck continued after hitting the valve and shed, careening across Harris Hill Road, then coming to rest in the woods on the westbound side of the road.
That's right where Pat and Bill Reschke found it -- out their front window -- after they were jolted upright by the impact. Pat Reschke had just fallen back asleep after getting up and checking on her husband, who had been in his wheelchair watching television in the kitchen.
The Reschke's house is the nearest home to the crash scene.
"It was like a nightmare," said Mrs. Reschke. "I heard this 'boom' and when you opened the door all you could hear was a 'pssss' sound."
Within minutes, emergency workers were pounding on the door telling the Reschkes to leave their Harris Hill Road home. The house sits just yards from the ruptured valve, separated only by some foliage.
"I still had my pajamas on and they said 'Get out,' so I said, 'Bill, we got to go,'" Mrs. Reschke said.
She wheeled her husband down the back deck ramp out into the driveway, with the family dog in tow, and with a firefighter's assistance was brought to a Tim Hortons about 300 yards away, at the corner of Genesee Street.
Next door to the Reschkes are Debbie Slojkowski and Kathy Krengulec. Firefighters pounded on the door and windows of the home shared by the two sisters before finally awaking Slojkowski.
"It startled me," said Slojkowski. "They had no other way to get us out."
Krengulec had also just fallen asleep upstairs in the 1 1/2-story home when she "heard a very loud bang ... and the house shake a little." Next thing she knew, her sister was yelling for her to get up.
After throwing on some jeans and grabbing her purse and keys, Krengulec fled with her sister to Tim Hortons. There, she doled out the last of a few dollar bills she had to help her neighbors buy coffee. She said most of the others hadn't grabbed their wallets or purses.
Investigators were looking into the "distinct possibility" that the driver had a stroke or some other medical emergency before hitting the other vehicle on the Thruway, said State Police Capt. Michael Nigrelli.
The people in the other car were not hurt, Nigrelli added.
Robert McPeek, Lancaster emergency management team coordinator, said when he initially got the call about the accident Friday morning from National Fuel, he was told that a major line with at least 400 pounds of pressure had been struck.
"That could have caused a big explosion," he said.
Luckily, the truck had just missed hitting the major line by "about a foot," McPeek said.
Instead, the out-of-control tractor-trailer hit the gas line regulator, which still could have caused an explosion had there been a spark, McPeek said.
But before that was determined, emergency officials were preparing for the worst-case scenario.
As a precaution, state police shut down an 18-mile stretch of the Thruway, between Exits 48A (Pembroke) and 50 (Youngmann Expressway).
Town police and Bowmansville firefighters went door-to-door to the 20 to 25 houses closest to the accident scene to evacuate residents.
The town's emergency management team used a computer program to map out the potential gas plume. The team then activated the town's reverse 911 system -- called Code Red -- which alerted more residents within about a mile radius from the accident site, and instructed them to evacuate. Those residents were allowed to leave by car.
Town officials said 600 to 700 phone numbers were called.
Several dozen people showed up at the Bowmansville Fire Hall. Others found shelter at a Seventh Day Adventist church on Genesee Street and the Tim Hortons, where many of the residents closest to the scene like the Reschkes and others were marshaled on foot.
Residents were told they couldn't leave by vehicle because starting the motor could've triggered an explosion. Pat Reschke said her attempt to take a flash picture of the crash scene was also thwarted by emergency responders for safety's sake.
"I wasn't that nervous until I heard it could explode," added Krengulec. "And, I'm a smoker. It's a damn good thing I didn't decide to light up.
"It was a pretty crazy night."
All of the residents except the Reschkes were allowed to return home shortly before 5 a.m. The Reschkes had to wait an additional hour or so.
National Fuel reported receiving its first call about the incident at about 2:45 a.m., said spokeswoman Karen Merkel. Crews were sent out to shut off the gas. "The situation was made safe at about 4:15 a.m.," she said.
Crews were still working late Friday on restoring service to about 52 residences and businesses Friday, she said.
The Thruway was reopened at 4:32 a.m., state police said.
The state police's commercial vehicle investigation unit is investigating the crash.
"There is a possibility that he suffered a stroke," Nigrelli said. "That would explain why the vehicle went so out of control."
Investigators said Szczpaniec's truck, which was hauling cardboard boxes, is owned by Polmax Transportation Inc. in La Grange, Ill. The driver is from Maspeth, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens.
Nigrelli called the accident "very freakish" and said it's extremely lucky that no one else was hurt. "All things considered, this could have been far worse."
Tom Trzepacz, the Bowmansville fire chief, didn't want to speculate about what could have happened had the truck sparked a fire or hit the larger gas line.
"I'm glad we didn't have to find out, let's put it that way," he said. " ... It would have taken out some houses."
MacPeek said emergency officials "had to assume the worst" and that's why the reverse 911 program was initiated. "That's why we notified everyone right away," he said.
Had a major line been ruptured, he said, "there would have been one big blow torch going up there, like the one that happened in California."
Exactly one year ago Thursday, an underground gas line exploded below San Bruno, Calif., killing eight people.
Several local officials pointed out that there had been a truck accident last year on the Thruway in almost the same location as Friday's mishap. In that incident, the truck veered off the north side of the Thruway and struck a utility pole before bursting into flames.
MacPeek speculated that had the accident caused a spark, the shed that housed the valve would have caught fire, but not much more.
If it had been the larger line?
"Then we would have had a tiger by the tail," MacPeek said.
The coordinated response of town and state police with the local fire companies and the emergency management team showed that Lancaster is ready to deal with emergencies, MacPeek said.
"We always prepare for the worst," he said.
