Chesterton
firefighters responded to an overturned semi at the entrance to the Indiana
Toll Road on Wednesday.
The crash occurred
around 12:21 p.m., Deputy Fire Chief Nate Williams told the Chesterton
Tribune today, as the trucker was turning left from northbound Ind. 49
onto the westbound approach to the Toll Road. The trucker had just succeeded
in clearing the intersection when his rig flipped onto its right side,
coming to rest in the shoulder, fortuitously leaving both the southbound
lanes of Ind. 49 and one westbound lane into the Toll Road unblocked.
The trucker
sustained a laceration to the head and was transported to hospital, Williams
said.
The trucker was
hauling multiple one-ton totes of soy lecithin, a food additive, and though
there was no actual load loss, there was some leakage of the soy, mixed with
diesel fuel and oil, Williams said. Firefighters used oil dry to dam and
contain the mess, then cleaned it up themselves.
Responding to the
scene to right the tractor and trailer was Joe Wagner of Joe’s Towing Inc.,
who managed to do so without having to offload the soy lecithin, Williams
said, “although it took two big trucks to do it.” The entrance to the Toll
Road remained open for approximately an hour after the crash, then was
closed while Wagner was working.
The CFD cleared the
scene at 2:19 p.m.