Molten aluminum spilled across a section of Interstate 165 in Daviess County early Thursday morning, in a one-vehicle accident that closed both lanes of the highway and caused extensive damage to the road.
The incident occurred at 4:04 p.m. near the 70 mile marker, just south of the Fairview Drive overpass. The truck was hauling large vats of aluminum from Bowling Green, and was on the way to Boonville, Indiana, when the crash occurred, Daviess County Emergency Management director Andy Ball said.
The semitrailer apparently went off the edge of the road, causing the driver to overcorrect, Ball said. The vats shifted and the trailer overturned.
“The whole trailer came off,” Ball said.
Daviess County Sheriff Brad Youngman said the vats spilled the aluminum across both northbound lanes. Some aluminum also splashed into a southbound lane.
The Ohio County Sheriff’s Office closed the northern lanes of I-165 at the Hartford exit while units from multiple agencies responded to the overturned trailer, Youngman said. Northbound traffic was routed through Ohio County on U.S. 231.
The molten aluminum was about 1,200 degrees, Youngman said.
“One of the challenges we had was the stuff was so hot, there was no way to clean it up,” Youngman said. The aluminum caused significant damage to the roadway, Youngman said.
“The debris removal has been complicated by the wreckage, asphalt and the containers, which all melted together,” Youngman said.
The truck’s driver complained of minor injuries and was taken to Owensboro Health Regional Hospital. The cause of the accident is still under investigation, Youngman said.
The trailer was destroyed by the heat of the molten aluminum, Ball said.
“All that was left of the trailer was the frame,” he said.
The southbound lane was inspected and did not sustain damage that warranted being closed.
Matt Hughes, public information officer for the state highway department’s Madisonville office, said crews were scraping aluminum and melted asphalt off the northbound lanes Thursday afternoon, and said officials expected to have one of the lanes reopened Thursday evening.
The second northbound lane should reopen sometime Friday. Highway crews are making only temporary fixes for now, Hughes said.
“With ROMP going on, we are going to hold off making the permanent repairs until sometime next week,” Hughes said. The lanes will be repaired one at a time, so traffic does not have to be detoured off the highway, Hughes said.
