Posted: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 7:40 pm

Updated: 11:53 pm, Tue Sep 14, 2010.

By Kim Burgess HJNew.com

A semi truck carrying bananas exploded at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, sending intense flames into the air and disrupting traffic but causing no major injuries.

Witnesses say the semi was traveling north on State Road 165 through the 1200 South intersection when the driver ran a red light, causing his truck to hit several vehicles and a power pole before flipping over and catching on fire from its own leaking diesel fuel. The truck landed on the east side of the highway in front of the Maverik and Jiffy Lube.

According to Lt. Lee Perry of the Utah Highway Patrol, the crash involved a total of eight vehicles and 14 people. Two individuals were transported by ambulance to Logan Regional Hospital with minor injuries, including the semi driver, who got out of the truck before the explosion. Police believe others, who declined medical attention at the scene, may have gone to the hospital on their own.

Power was out in the area and traffic was restricted for several hours, with the road closure extending from the intersection near Maverik to the "Y" at about 800 S. Main St. in Logan. Perry said he expected the clean-up effort would last through the night, requiring a hazardous materials team to dispose of the leaked diesel.

In total, three law enforcement agencies and two fire departments responded with Highway Patrol taking the lead because the accident began on Providence's side of the border with Logan.

Troopers will continue investigating what happened and plan to look at video footage recorded by the nearby Macey's supermarket.

"We do have a pretty good witness at this point, somebody who stopped for the red light and the semi truck went past him," Perry said.

He had no estimate of damages, but thinks it will likely turn out to be "a pretty expensive crash."

Still, several of the people involved said they are just happy no one was badly hurt.

"It sucks, but I'm glad he (the driver) is OK," said Mysti Knight, who was working at the Maverik and saw the semi crush her parked 1994 Chevrolet Caprice Classic.

Knight immediately turned off the pumps' gas lines and walked outside the darkened store, which had lost power.

On the other side of the road, Ashley Tarinelli and her family had had a close call.

Her 2007 Nissan Sentra was hit by a minivan that spun into her path after the semi truck slammed into it. Tarinelli's daughter and two brothers were in the car, but no was injured.

"It happened really fast," she said. "Suddenly everything caught on fire."

Pictures from Lance's camera phone:  "With the wind blowing so hard once we had the trailer uprighted, I had to keep a hold of it with the rotator until Ryan could pull it straight into the wind behind with number 17."

Firefighters stand in front of a crashed semi truck in Sardine Canyon near Dry Lake on Tuesday. Sardine Canyon was closed for two hours Tuesday after emergency officials responded to a semi truck rollover due to high wind in the area.



By Matthew K. Jensen
staff writer

Sardine Canyon was closed Tuesday for two hours after emergency officials responded to a semi truck rollover due to high wind near the Dry Lake area.

The canyon was closed in both directions to tall, high profile vehicles and closed to all traffic in southbound lanes because of the toppled semi blocking the lanes.

Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Lee Perry said the empty semi was traveling southbound on U.S. Highway 89/91 when at about 1:13 p.m., it rolled onto its side and slid down the highway about 100 feet near mile marker 11.

“We’re having excessive wind gusts coming through right now,” he said from the scene Tuesday. “The trailer was hit by a gust of wind and it sent the truck over on its side.”

Perry says the truck blocked both lanes of southbound travel, the center median and the inside northbound lane.

The driver, of S and S Trucking, was evaluated by on-scene paramedics and released shortly after. He did not suffer any significant injuries. HAZMAT crews also responded to clean a petroleum leak at the site of the rollover.

One weather expert said Wednesday’s windy conditions were caused, in part, by a deep low-pressure trough moving into the area.

“Normally when you have a very strong temperature gradient associated with a cold front moving through, winds tend to be quite large,” said Utah Climate Center Meteorologist Marty Booth.

Weather instruments at a station near the site of the crash, close to the border of Cache County and Box Elder County, indicated southerly sustained winds at 32 mph and gusts up to 42 mph at around the time of the incident. At about 1 p.m., Booth added, The Logan-Cache Airport’s automated weather system was reporting wind gusts up to 75 mph.

Booth said the strong cold front that passed over Northern Utah late Tuesday afternoon is associated with the above-normal temperatures that were observed on Sunday and Monday. He said Tuesday’s low temperature was 20 degrees warmer than normal.

The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory for Cache Valley and portions of the northern Wasatch Front for most of Tuesday.

 

I hauled this bus from the repair shop to the auction. They pulled the transmission out of it and put its transmission into another bus that had a bad transmission. The transmission on the back of the trailer is the bad tranny that came out of the bus they put this buses transmission into.

Received a call from the police for a trailer that had lost its axles. I responded in my 50-30T35 and found the axles, dot bumper, and axle track out in the field and the rest of the trailer on the road. Trailer was loaded with 30,000 lbs of mail. I lifted the back of the trailer off the road, blocked it up to were I could get my under lift under it and fork it. We then put our dolly under the front of the trailer and then towed it 2 miles to were we offloaded it into the customers other trailer.

The front landing gear on this trailer full of cheese, gave way, causing the front of the trailer to crash to the ground.  Because we couldn't get under it from the front we had to use two trucks on the sides, putting two straps underneath creating a basket and picking it up in that manner.  Once we got it in the air we backed in a yard donkey and hooked it in to the fifth wheel.  Then Shreibers offloaded it and we went on our way.

3-3-10

	Semi traveling east bound on I-84 mile marker 15, goes out of control, jumps across the medium, and crosses four lanes of traffic.
	Driver claims she fell asleep, (husband in the bunk), wakes up, cruise control is on. Whatever!
	BIG DETOUR!
	Takes out the fence too!
	Finally comes to rest upright on snowpacked frontage road.
	We called the DOT to plow the  frontage road saving us hours of headache.
	We lifted the tractor in the air with the rotator, . . .
	. . . so that we could take off the damaged fuel tank and air tank. Then we caged the tractor brakes, and aired the trailer, . . .
	. . . hooked up and headed to the Tremonton lot.

 

I guess this bus was NOT on time.