JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The northbound side of the Buckman Bridge was shut down for hours during Friday morning’s rush hour because of a fiery crash involving two tractor-trailers and a box truck.
The box truck was carrying industrial cleaners, and because firefighters used water to douse the blaze, the city’s biohazard team was called in to make sure the hazardous material didn’t run off into the St. Johns River, according to a Jacksonville Fire and Rescue spokesperson.
“Some tanks that were popping and exploding — crews had to deal with,” Capt. Eric Prosswimmer explained. “So the hazmat team was called in to assist, they brought in PKP, an extinguishing agent that can assist us in putting the fire out. The problem now is there’s water runoff. It’s really not on the bridge. It’s just before the water starts with some of the runoff running toward the bridge.”
The city’s hazmat team was called to block the runoff of foam and other chemicals from contaminating the river.
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Prosswimmer said no one was transported from the crash, which was at the beginning of the northbound side of the bridge. The first alert of the crash went out from Jacksonville police just before 6:30 a.m. The road reopened just before 11:30 a.m.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, a tractor-trailer was waiting on the bridge for a tow truck after a previous wreck Thursday night and it was rear-ended by the box truck when the driver fell asleep at the wheel.
“The guy was actually asleep in his truck on the shoulder of the road waiting on a wrecker and a box truck collided with him, causing fire,” Prosswimmer said.
Debris from the collision hit the front of another tractor-trailer.
“This was a crash that could have been avoided, but we are thankful no one was injured, but unfortunately we do have significant road closure,” FHP Master Sgt. Dylan Bryan said.
The first semi and the box truck were engulfed in flames after the collision, the report said.
Prosswimmer said the trucks caught fire first on impact then the flames spread to the cab of the truck, which contained the diesel.
One of them reignited hours later and had to be put out again.
“It’s not uncommon. Basically what you’re looking at is we’ve, in addition to the vehicle, the chemicals, you’ve got a lot of plastics, then you’ve got metals that are also flammable, you’ve got flammable metals in the steering column, the wheels are commonly flammable metals,” Prosswimmer said.
The smoke was so bad at one point that it closed one of the lanes on the southbound side of the bridge also.
Traffic from I-295 on the northbound side was diverted onto San Jose Boulevard before the bridge for several hours.
“We have to make sure everything is cleaned up and safe. There’s slick on the roadway. You don’t want further accidents as a result. It’s not something we can rush through,” Prosswimmer said of why it took so long to reopen the road.
Prosswimmer said extinguishing the fire and eventually reopening the bridge was the result of a team effort between his department, JSO, FHP, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Environmental Resource Management Department.
“All in all, this went really smoothly. The fact that we had no injuries, that nobody was transported,” Prosswimmer said. “In my book, human life is obviously our first and foremost concern.”
Bryan said another issue during the cleanup became secondary crashes because of onlookers.
“That’s rubbernecking people not paying attention to the road. We see this every day as crashes occur,” Bryan said. “It’s important to pay attention to the road, people trying to get from point A to point B. We want to make sure they do so safely.”