Update: Interstate 65 northbound reopened after crash
Published 4:26 pm Tuesday, June 26, 2012
- A tanker truck crashed into a pillar under the Beasley Road bridge over Interstate 65 Tuesday afternoon. The tanker did not catch fire, but the tractor cab did, with fire spreading up the embankment into underbrush. Alabama State Troopers had no reports of fatalities or serious injuries as of 4:15 p.m.
UPDATED at 6:25 p.m.
Interstate 65 north of Mount Olive Road has been opened again, after a tanker truck crashed into a pillar under a bridge over the road on Tuesday afternoon.
The crash startied a fire that spread onto the adjacent embankment and closing the northbound lanes of the highway at the Mt. Olive Road exit.
The tank did not catch fire, but the tractor cab did, spreading flames onto the dry underbrush nearby.
The crash occurred where Beasley Road crosses over I-65 on an overpass. That road was closed while firefighters put down the fire on the embankment from the overpass. ALDOT officials will inspect the overpass to see if structual damage resulted from the crash.
Police diverted I-65 traffic onto U.S. 31, tying up traffic throughout Gardendale. Southbound traffic was not affected.
The driver of the truck was injured, but the extent of those injuries has not been made public yet.
