Traffic problems caused by tanker rollover
Published on October 7th, 1998
WOBURN, MA - A tanker-truck driver is dead, a woman driver was severely shaken and traffic was a nightmare for many Stoneham residents, Tuesday morning, in the aftermath of a gas truck and car collision on Route 128 Monday night.
Two hotels and a Woburn neighborhood were evacuated after an accident in the southbound lane of the highway, near the Hampton Inn, at 9:30 p.m. on Monday. The heavily traveled highway did not open until approximately 10 am the next morning.
The truck driver killed in the accident was identified as Kenneth Jackson, 63, of Saugus. The gas truck driver suffered severe head and arm in juries in the rollover of the cylinder-shaped gas truck. He was thrown from the tanker and was pronounced dead at the scene.
"The truck rolled over and hit 250 feet of guard rail," said Woburn Police Chief Philip Mahoney, who remained at the scene from the time of the accident through Tuesday morning.
The accident brought a disaster response from nearly every public agency involved with public safety in the state. Police and fire crews from 26 surrounding cities and towns blocked off 20 intersections leading onto Route 128 in either direction.
Stoneham Fired Department Captain James Halpin explained that firefighters from Engine 4 played an integral role in keeping the area clear of sparks and the clean-up that followed.
"(Firefighters)were there for about 12 hours," Halpin explained. "They gave (Woburn firefighters) some much needed water and lines."
Woburn Fire Department Acting Chief Paul Tortolano was in charge of the catastrophic scene.
"The early news reports helped a lot," said Chief Mahoney. Word of the incident spread with the 10 p.m. news and, by Tuesday morning, the public was aware of the very serious situation at the intersection of routes 128 and 93, one of the state's busiest.
A one-mile stretch of Route 128 from Main Street in Woburn to I-93 was closed in both directions. Commuters either waited in long lines of traffic on the main and back roads north and south of the crash site from Woburn into Wilmington, Reading, and Stoneham, or scrambled to find alternate modes of transportation. The MBTA reported delays of up to 45 minutes along its Haverhill and Lowell commuter rail lines. The Mishawum train station was closed and bus service from the Logan Express lot was canceled.
The liquid natural gas truck was carrying 10,500 gallons of gas that weighed in excess of 34,000 pounds, according to public safety officials at the site. About 1,000 gallons were removed while the truck was lying on its side, but the highway remained closed in the early morning hours while officials warned of "grave danger" should the gas become ignited by sparks.
At 7:20 a.m., the truck was righted. However, the truck was still loaded with 9,500 gallons of cargo. Coady's wreckers carefully pulled the vehicle to an upright position with air bags on the underside.
The trailer was then coupled with a new cab, which took the truck down the on-ramp to Mishawum Road and then went through the Market Basket parking lot at the Woburn Mall. It then returned up the same ramp, by the accident scene, and proceeded south on Route 128.
The truck then went through Burlington and north on Route 3 to a Lowell discharge station.
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