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Valier evacuated after propane truck rolls |
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Wednesday, 09 July 2008 |
The Town of Valier was evacuated Monday after a propane truck failed to negotiate a curve coming into town and rolled over.
The truck, from Summit Transportation, was driven by Darrell Dean Babb of Eureka who, “Amazingly was not hurt,” commented Pondera County Sheriff Tom Kuka to the I-O.
The accident took place at about 4 p.m. on Hwy. 44 coming into Valier. Apparently, Babb reached down for something in the cab and failed to make the turn coming into town. The truck took out a library sign and ended up in the library parking lot.
Kuka said the truck was carrying a full load of propane, about 35,000 liters which comes out to approximately 92,000 gallons, weighing about 80,000 pounds.
The Valier ambulance crew, fire department, Search and Rescue and Pondera County road crew responded to the accident and went door-to-door in Valier to tell people of the evacuation. Even the businesses in town were good about shutting down.
Kuka noted that the emergency manual recommends that for a propane leak, people in a half-mile radius be evacuated.
The sheriff said, “The whole town cooperated and even traffic that had to be re-routed were cooperative.”
Residents were asked to go to the pavilion.
Authorities were able to get the vehicle back on its wheels around 9 p.m. and the evacuation notice was lifted.
Cliff’s Towing out of Shelby righted the truck. Kuka said he asked if there was a chance the truck may explode when it was turned on its wheels and reportedly, the owner of Cliff’s Towing told him, “It doesn’t matter, we won’t be here to know.”
It didn’t and a potential disaster was under control.
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