Chemical Spill That Closed Route May Be Tied To Road rage Incident
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A chemical spill on Route 30 on Tuesday night may have been tied to a road rage incident.
A woman called for help after someone threw a container of chemicals out the window of their car and onto the road.
A large stain on Route 30 near the East Pittsburgh Street ramps in Hempfield can be seen after a chemical spilled on the road the night before. Around 3.5 gallons of the chemical mixture was inside a jug. Westmoreland County hazmat crews determined that the chemical was diesel fuel, polyethylene and acetone.
"So it was a mixture someone had put together and created it either for cleaning materials, or some other type of use to clean up something," said Westmoreland County Hazmat Chief Chris Tantlinger.
Firefighters were called out to the scene just before 8:30 Tuesday night.
The spill shut down a stretch of Route 30 in both directions for around four hours.
"We found a large spill zone on the road about 25 to 30 feet wide by 60 feet long," said Hempfield Number 2 Fire Chief Tom Kline. "We determined we needed to have foam put on it to knock down the odors."
After some investigating, Chief Kline soon realized this happened during a possible road rage incident.
"It was tacky more than anything. Several vehicles had already driven through the accident scene since somebody threw the jug out the window at the other vehicle. It had been ran over quite a while before we had been dispatched," said Kline.
As for the other vehicle involved...
"We had to report she just ran it over. It didn't hit her vehicle. She hit the end of it. And spun it around and threw the chemical out everywhere," said Kline.
After testing the chemical, hazmat crews realize it wasn't explosive in nature, but can be dangerous to humans.
"It was a volatile organic compound that can have a lot of vapor to it that could cause nausea or some other kind of condition," said Tantlinger.
State police are also taking part in this investigation.
Chief Kline said he has no leads on who did this, or why, and there aren't any businesses right near the incident to catch it on surveillance.