By:Elizabeth Sagarin
Commuters rerouted
A tanker truck containing 11,000 gallons of gasoline tipped onto its side and smashed into a cement retaining wall in Oceanside on Tuesday, interrupting train service between Long Beach and Lynbrook from approximately 5 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Approximately 4,000 gallons of gasoline spilled from the two severed compartments of the tanker, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Environmental Conservation.
The gasoline traveled nearly 500 feet from the nearby railroad tracks. Chief Ed Scharberg of the Oceanside Fire Department, who was the first to arrive on the scene, determined that train service should be delayed until vapors from the gasoline were at levels that couldn't ignite from sparks created by passing trains.
"With 11,000 gallons of product and working tanks in the area we couldn't risk a flash fire," he said. "I know there were a lot of displaced commuters but I'd rather somebody late for work than a major catastrophe."
The incident occurred only minutes after the driver of the Getty Petroleum truck, Gregory Ryan, finished filling the tanker up at the RAD Energy
terminal on Hampton Road. He was traveling southeast on Hampton when he
tried to make a left turn onto the steep incline at the base of Daly. Ryan lost control of the vehicle and both the cab and the tanker turned onto their side. No other vehicles were involved and the driver was not injured, according to Sergeant Frank Sabella of the Fourth Precinct.
The MTA provided buses for Long Island Rail Road commuters traveling from the affected stations on the Long Beach line.
Anne Shames, a commuter who normally takes the 7:15 a.m. train from Oceanside,
characterized the situation as "horrible." Not seeing any buses, she caught a ride with the sister of a fellow commuter to another station.
Karen Nicholas' husband dropped her off at the Oceanside station to catch an
8 a.m. train and no buses were there at that time either, she said. Just before her husband left, a friend called her on her cell phone and told her that train service was held up. "I would have been stuck here waiting because I had no idea," she said.
According to a police officer at the scene of the accident, who declined to
give his name, Ryan stated that he was traveling at only 10 miles an hour
and he has been a truck driver for 24 years.
According to Scharfberg, Ryan appeared to be "shaken up." He was
taken to South Nassau Communities Hospital and released a few hours later,
according to the police officer.
The exact cause of the accident is being investigated by police officers from the Motor Carrier Safety Unit.
After the remaining gasoline in the tanker was pumped to another truck and
enough foam was laid down to keep vapors from the escaped gasoline at a safe
level, Scharfberg gave the okay to restore train service around 2 p.m.
The tanker was put upright and hauled away. Police barricades were
removed from the street around 6 p.m.
Nearly all of the gasoline that escaped from the ruptured tanker leaked
into a storm drain located a few feet downhill from the overturned tanker,
according to ???????????. The drain, which washes out to Hogs Island
Channel was fitted with two booms, barriers, and sand bags to deter the
fuel from flowing into the channel. He said was fairly confident that the
contamination would remain in the drain and could be easily vacuumed out.
Tyree Environmental Technologies in Farmingdale has been contracted to do
the cleanup, which the DEC will oversee. Specialized trucks designed to
remove 2000 gallons of material were deployed overnight to pump the gasoline
from the drain. Clean up was estimated to be completed by early to mid-
afternoon Wednesday.
A shoreline survey conducted from 9 to 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday concluded that gasoline hadn't reached the canal and the area's water foul didn't appear to be affected. He said shoreline surveys will continue in order to make sure wild life that inhabit the remaining marshland surrounding industrialized area is healthy. "This is a very productive site with a lot of shore birds," he said.
James Geraci, the assistant terminal manager for Getty Petroleum, wasn't
willing to speculate on the cause of the accident. "We absolutely didn't
see it coming," he said.
