Hazardous Chemical Scare Shuts Down Highway Six

Hazardous Chemical Scare Shuts Down Highway Six


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Sam Penrod reporting A hazardous chemical scare had traffic shut down along highway six near the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon for nearly three hours this morning.

The trouble started when a power transformer fell off of a truck and spilled its contents.

The road was reopened about two hours ago and traffic is again moving here along Highway Six.

But around 7:30 this morning traffic in both directions was shut down as a precaution because of this hazardous materials scare.

The power transformer fell off of a truck as it was taking a turn and spilled what turned out to be mineral oil onto the road. Transformers use the oil as an insulator and coolant. Some old transformers contain hazardous chemicals. Then as highway patrol troopers who were downwind from the spill started directing traffic and closing the highway, two of them started feeling ill, which prompted a call to hazardous materials teams to clean up the spill.

One trooper was taken to the hospital as a precaution, the other was checked out at the scene. The driver of the truck was also taken by ambulance to be checked out for breathing problems. The spill did cause some severe traffic delays in both directions, especially cars heading west out of the canyon.

Again no one seriously hurt this morning and traffic is open again here along Highway Six.

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