TANKER ROLLS: No serious injuries in anhydrous ammonia accident

A tanker hauling anhydrous ammonia rolled onto its side while making a turn, but no gas leaked and no one was seriously injured.

The accident occurred about 7:25 a.m. Thursday as the tanker turned from Tipton Street onto Agrico Lane. It was on its way to The Andersons Inc. in Seymour.

None of the dangerous, pressurized gas leaked, and the driver was not seriously injured, Seymour Police Chief Bill Abbott said at the scene.

Although no immediate evacuation was needed, Applebee’s, Steak ’n Shake, Staples and Duke Energy were closed along with all lanes of Tipton Street and Meadowbrook Drive when cleanup workers attempted to transfer the gas into another tanker, Seymour Fire Chief Brad Lucas said.

Anhydrous ammonia is a colorless gas used as a nutrient in farm fields, as a building block in fertilizers and pharmaceuticals and in cleaners.

Wischmeier Trucking of rural Seymour, owner of the tanker, planned to transfer half the anhydrous ammonia into another tanker and then upright the wrecked tanker.

That transfer didn’t happen, so a greater evacuation area was called for, Lucas said. That included closing businesses in nearby Village Center Shopping Center and 84 Lumber.

Officials also alerted Pet Supplies Plus and Seymour-Redding Elementary School to keep everyone inside their buildings while the tanker was uprighted, Lucas said.

Pets Supplies Plus and the school were notified because the wind speed and direction at the time could have sent a cloud of leaking gas in that direction, Lucas said.

“They were not able to transfer any of the product because of the way it was lying and the way the valve system worked,” Lucas said. “Instead, they uprighted it full of product.”

That happened at noon, and traffic was reopened by 12:10 p.m.

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