Gasoline Tanker In Serious Accident On Wasserman Way

By Andrew Gorosko

Two tractor-trailer trucks, one of which was loaded with 8,800 gallons of gasoline, collided in an environmentally sensitive area near Wasserman Way on the frigid afternoon of Monday, December 20, sending the vehicles careening off opposite sides of the road.

The Exxon-Mobil gasoline tanker, which did not spill its load or catch fire, came to rest on the fringe of a marsh lying above the Pootatuck Aquifer. The truck was pointed eastward along the westbound lane of Wasserman Way. The gasoline tanker narrowly missed colliding with an electric utility pole.

The other tractor-trailer truck, owned by ABF Freight Systems, came to rest pointed westward along the eastbound lane.

Both vehicles received heavy front-end damage in the impact, which occurred just east of Wasserman Way’s intersection with Nunnawauk Road. The accident closed down a lengthy section of Wasserman Way for several hours, requiring extensive detours away from that heavily traveled road.

Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company Chief Bill Halstead said that fortunately the contents of the gasoline tanker did not spill, ignite, or explode. Sandy Hook firefighters spent more than five hours at the accident scene.

In October 1996, a gasoline tanker involved in a one-vehicle accident caught fire and exploded near George’s Pizza and Restaurant on Route 302 in Dodgingtown, killing the driver and causing extensive property damage, plus soil and groundwater contamination in the area.

In September 2003, a gasoline tanker collided with a sport-utility vehicle on South Main Street, near Greenbriar Lane, causing a fire and explosion that heavily damaged nearby property and caused local contamination problems.

In the December 20 accident on Wasserman Way, which was reported at 3:15 pm, an empty ABF Freight Systems tractor-trailer truck, driven westward by Tony Formato, 58, of Bridgeport, apparently went out of control on the road and crossed into the opposite lane, police said.

The ABF truck then collided with an eastbound Exxon-Mobil tractor-trailer gasoline tanker driven by Gary Foran, 53, of Watertown, police said.

Formato was transported by the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps to Danbury Hospital to be treated for injuries, police said. Foran was treated at the scene, police said.

The cause of the accident is under investigation, police said.

“We’re lucky,” said Newtown police Sergeant John Cole of the gasoline tanker’s staying intact in the accident.

“We were very lucky there was no [gasoline] leak whatsoever,” Chief Halstead said. A small amount of radiator fluid leaked from one of the trucks, he said.

“The environmental impact [of gasoline leakage] would have been tremendous,” he added.

When the state built Wasserman Way in the late 1990s to replace the former Mile Hill Road, it took special care to keep the road away from the marshland lying immediately to its north for environmental protection reasons. Also, the road has a specialized stormwater drainage system designed to guard against the marsh’s contamination.

The marsh lies above the Pootatuck Aquifer, the town’s sole source aquifer. The marsh is near the pumphouse for the aquifer-fed water supply system that provides Fairfield Hills, Garner Correctional Institution, and Nunnawauk Meadows with drinking water.

Before the loaded gasoline tanker could be removed from the scene of the accident, its contents were pumped out into another tanker truck as an environmental safeguard, Chief Halstead said.

Considering the dynamics of the accident, it was very fortunate that the tank carrying 8,800 gallons of gasoline did not rupture, explode, and catch fire, Chief Halstead said.

“We were very fortunate,” he stressed.