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(Photo/DPS)
UINTAH COUNTY -- A truck carrying radioactive material crashed early Sunday on U.S. Highway 40 in Gusher.
The crash occurred about 4 a.m. when the driver of the truck, whom authorities suspect was DUI, went off the right side of the road and struck a guardrail, according to the Utah Highway Patrol.
Uintah County Fire District Director Jeremy Raymond said the truck was carrying a supply of iridium 192 and a camera containing iridium 192. The radioactive material is used to X-ray pipelines and storage tanks in the oil and natural gas fields of the Uinta Basin, Raymond said.
Nobody's been exposed or contaminated with radiation.
–Jeremy Raymond
"Nobody's been exposed or contaminated with radiation," said Raymond, who noted that the nearest house is a quarter mile from the crash site.
The crash shut down traffic in both directions of US-40 for at least five hours while firefighters from Lapoint, Tridell and Jensen, and crews from Quality Inspecting and Testing Inc., the company that owns the truck, cleaned up the site.
The driver of the truck was taken to Uintah Basin Medical Center, where he was treated before being booked into the Uintah County Jail for investigation of DUI.
The ambulance crew who transported the man to the hospital was decontaminated as a precaution, according to Misty Bruns, director of emergency management for the Ute Indian Tribe.
