Tanker overturns on I-75, shuts key route for hours

Traffic sent to North Dixie and it becomes a parking lot
By Kelli Wynn
Dayton Daily News

A tanker truck carrying about 7,500 gallons of diesel fuel overturned Monday on Interstate 75 north at Stop Eight Road after hitting a sedan and then a guardrail, stopping traffic in both directions for more than eight hours, the Ohio Highway Patrol said.
I-75 was shut from the Needmore Road exit to I-70 at 11:38 a.m., Ohio Highway Patrol dispatchers said. By 2:20 p.m., the southbound lanes were reopened while the three northbound lanes remained closed until 7:26 p.m., a patrol dispatcher said.
The tanker driven by Matthew A. Wellbaum, 30, of West Milton was unable to stop for slowing traffic, changed lanes and hit a 2006 Chrysler 300 sedan driven by Doris L. Feltner, 64, of Miamisburg, according to the patrol post at Dayton. Both vehicles traveled off the right side and hit a guardrail before the tanker overturned. No one was injured, according to the patrol post.
The accident closed I-75 north near Wagner Ford Road, Montgomery County sheriff's deputies said.
The southbound ramp from the interstate to Benchwood Road also was closed, Butler Twp. fire Capt. Michael Blakesly said.
Poe Avenue north and south, between Stop Eight and Benchwood, was closed in both directions until about 5:30 p.m., he said. The crash had also caused traffic on North Dixie Drive to come to a halt.
Normally, the Rev. Gregg W. Anderson would need an hour to drive from Highland Heights in northern Kentucky to Dayton International Airport. "It took me 2½ hours to get from Highland Heights, Ky., to get to mile marker 57," said Anderson, 52. "Took me another half hour to get to the Super 8 Hotel." The motel is at 550 E. National Road in Vandalia.
Anderson, who said he was a former TV reporter for WKRC in Cincinnati, said he tried to pass the time by listening to the radio and talking to his mother, who was his passenger.
The Andersons, who are to catch a flight to Atlanta this morning, said some motorists were so frustrated they shut off their vehicles.
Blakesly said that as far as the leak, Butler Twp. firefighters put "absorbent down. Basically Kitty Litter," over the 100 gallons of fuel that leaked after plugging the hole on the tank.
"Diesel fuel is combustible, not flammable. Therefore, this weather helps because it doesn't give off vapors," he said. The high temperature was in the low 20s.
The tanker's company, Earhart Petroleum Inc. of Troy, sent another truck to the scene about
1:30 p.m. to pump out the remaining fuel. Once that was accomplished, the overturned truck was towed by 6 p.m., Blakesly said.
Firefighters, assisted by the Dayton Regional Hazmat team, left the scene about 6:30 p.m. to let Ohio Department of Transportation and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency workers oversee the clean-up, Blakesly said.