The roughly eight-hour full closure of I-15 following a collision between Montana City and Clancy Monday “was due to the complexity of the incident scene” and hazardous conditions caused by a leaking fuel trailer that rolled onto its side, according to Doug Dodge of Jefferson County Disaster and Emergency Services.
The collision, reported at 8:21 a.m., involved a car and a semi truck towing two trailers filled with fuel. According to Griffin Sutherland of the Montana Highway Patrol, the driver of the northbound car lost control, crossed the center median, collided with the southbound truck, came to a stop and caught fire.
The impact caused the truck to cross the center median into the northbound lane, where the second trailer detached and rolled onto the road surface before the truck and first trailer came to a stop near the frontage road, Sutherland said.
The car’s driver suffered minor injuries while the truck driver was uninjured, Sutherland said. No other people were involved in the collision, he said.
“Approximately 20-30 gallons of fuel leaked from the damaged rear trailer of the semi-truck, which was contained to the immediate area around the incident,” Dodge said by email. “Due to the damage the trailer received, and because it came to rest on its side, transferring the fuel in it to another semi-truck proved time consuming and dangerous. While the fire departments stood by with hoses ready in the event of a fire or explosion, environmental and towing agencies worked to carefully remove enough fuel so the trailer could be flipped back onto its wheels safely.”
“Once the trailer was flipped back over the southbound lanes were reopened,” Dodge continued. “The northbound lanes remained closed until the fuel spill could be cleaned up, which occurred at approximately 4:30 p.m.
The incident triggered a response by numerous local agencies in addition to Dodge’s department and Montana Highway Patrol troopers. Two Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputies helped with traffic control for the duration, Sheriff Craig Doolittle said by email.
Eagle Ambulance, St. Peter’s Ambulance, Montana department of Transportation, several wreckers and the Montana City and Clancy volunteer fire departments also responded, Sutherland said.
Montana City VFD dealt with the car fire while Clancy firefighters handled the fuel spill, Dodge said.
“Both departments also provided traffic control at the Montana City and Clancy exits, diverting traffic to the frontage road, Highway 282, during the cleanup, and providing scene protection to the workers cleaning up the results of the crash,” he wrote.
Sutherland said traffic flow “was very consistent” and “not at a standstill” for very long for most of the day.
Two drivers were cited for ignoring traffic checkpoints and driving into the incident scene, he said.
