UPDATE: Highway 70 Closed Following Tanker Crash
MARYSVILLE (CBS13) – Highway 70 was closed north of Marysville and a tedious clean up effort was underway after a tanker truck and pickup truck collided Monday morning.
CHP said State Route 70 was closed at noon and could be closed for several more hours.
The accident happened just before 6:30 a.m. near Magnolia Road.
"We don't know why, but yeah, for whatever reason, the big rig did not stop, drove into the back of the pickup truck," said CHP Sgt. Michael McCarthy.
CHP says the pickup truck was stopped on Highway 70 ready to make a lefthand turn when out of nowhere, a tanker truck hauling 8,000 gallons of ethanol plowed into the back of pickup truck, which burst into flames.
The driver of the pickup truck was taken to the hospital with minor injuries and the driver of the tanker truck didn't have a scratch on him.
"Especially when you are talking about a highly flammable product such as ethanol, time consuming, they got to do it slowly and carefully," said CalFire's Lynn Tolmachoff, referring to the clean-up.
"They are going to have to put a hole in the side of thank to drain the 8,000 gallons of ethanol out of that, put it into the other vehicle. At that point we can recover the big rig and roll it back onto its wheels," explained Sgt. McCarthy.
CHP says the speed limit on this section of Highway 70 is 55 miles per hour. They're not sure how fast the driver of the big rig was going.
Traffic was diverted northbound at Woodruff Lane and southbound at Ramirez Road.
