Lincolnwood Gasoline Spill Caused By Driver Backing Into Pump
LINCOLNWOOD, Ill. (CBS) -- A major mess in the suburbs after this driver backed up into a gas pump.
Surveillance video showed hundreds of gallons of gasoline flooded out into the sewers.
And the driver?
He took off.
CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli had the story Monday from the gas station in Lincolnwood.
The station has been closed since just before midnight. And it's not because of the collision itself, but because of the aftermath.
Pump one of the Lincolnwood BP appears to be perfectly fine. But a closer look showed that it's been jolted from its foundation.
That's because a truck driver for unknown reasons reverses right into the pump late Sunday night. He then drives out of camera view.
Seconds later, he drives back into view, and this time properly positions his vehicle seemingly in order to pump gas. But when he opens his door, he immediately realizes that gasoline is gushing from the underground storage tank.
He thinks about it briefly before shutting the door and driving away from the station at the corner of Cicero and Touhy.
"Upon arrival, the engine found a very large leak from the gas pumps," said Lincolnwood Fire Department Battalion Chief Bryan Pierce.
The Lincolnwood Fire Department did their best to try and prevent the gasoline from flowing into the sewer system.
"We have diked the areas going around the sewer drains," Pierce added.
Sand was used to soak up as much of the gasoline as possible. But for a leak of this size more needed to be brought in by the department of public works.
An environmental specialist with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District determined that the environment was unstable and unsafe. So the fire department was ordered to flush water through the system in order to mitigate the danger to residents.
The driver has been identified as Tobias Perez Trinidad. He was charged with a Class A misdemeanor.
