August 7, 2017
Tanker Truck Crashes off Overpass
Traffic in downtown St. Louis can be difficult to navigate. Last week, morning rush hour was more difficult than usual when a tanker truck was left dangling off of an overpass in downtown St. Louis.
The tanker truck was driving eastbound on the Interstate 44 overpass, near the Washington Avenue exit, when the driver lost control on wet pavement. The tanker truck jack-knifed and hit another vehicle on the overpass. The tanker truck sped towards the overpass concrete barrier, crashed, and was left hanging by its rear wheels off the overpass onto Lumiere Boulevard.
Luckily, the 50-foot tanker truck was empty at the time of the accident.
The driver of the truck, Vernon McKellips, was driving the empty tanker truck into St. Louis to fill it with asphalt when it began to fishtail. Following the accident, McKellips was taken to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries. He was even able to walk around immediately after the accident. Two people in a car below the overpass were hurt when the tanker fell down, but luckily no one was killed or even severely injured.
The incident caused major traffic and closed both directions of the Eads Bridge for the morning. The truck was carefully lowered by tow trucks onto the lower roadway, and the road was reopened a few hours later. Cleanup crews were mostly worried about cleaning up the diesel fuel from the scene to ensure nothing caught on fire.
Overall, officials are saying it is a miracle no one was killed in the truck accident.