A collision between two semi trucks caused both vehicles to burst into flames and diverted traffic for nearly 12 hours in Lake Point Tuesday.
A little before 2 p.m., a red Peterbilt truck in the southbound turn lane of SR-36 made a left turn onto Saddleback Boulevard and crossed the path of a white International box van, said Trooper Clint Fawson of the Utah Highway Patrol. The box van T-boned the Peterbilt and flames erupted.
“It struck the red Peterbilt directly in the fuel tank, which immediately caught both commercial vehicles on fire,” he said. “By the time I got there, both commercial vehicles were fully engulfed.”
As the flames spread, all three people in the two trucks — the driver of the Peterbilt and the driver and passenger of the box van — were able to get themselves out and clear of the scene, Fawson said.
All three were taken to Mountain West Medical Center for medical treatment, and the driver of the Peterbilt was later transferred to a Salt Lake hospital, he said. SR-36 northbound traffic was diverted through Lake Point’s residential areas for more than 11 hours.
Meanwhile, fire crews battled flames that engulfed the trucks.
Ryan Willden, public information officer for the North Tooele County Fire District, said firefighters fought the blaze and cleaned up the scene for four hours. The elements of the fire made it more complicated than most crashes or fires, he said.
“It was kind of a perfect storm, if you will, in relationship to accidents and fires,” he said. “Although in the movies it’s real common for cars or trucks to blow up, that’s not real common in real life. To have not one but both vehicles involved in the accident catch fire was very unusual, so it did create kind of a complicated scene for firefighters and highway patrol officers doing traffic control because we had both vehicles on fire and had to do fire suppression on both of them at the same time.”
Additionally, the box van belonged to Liberty Tires, based in Salt Lake City, and its cargo made the fire more difficult to battle, as did spilled diesel fuel.
“There were tires in one of the trucks and tire fires are always really difficult to put out because once that rubber starts burning, it’s pretty difficult to get under control,” said Willden. “Rubber burns really hot because of all the chemicals in it.”
Fawson said the asphalt under the fire and a traffic light overhead both melted from the heat and had to be replaced. Road crews from the Utah Department of Transportation replaced the damaged portion of the road until about 1 a.m. Wednesday, after which the road was reopened as normal.
Fawson said although the crash destroyed both trucks, injured all three people involved and caused significant damage to infrastructure, all things considered, the incident ended well.
“It was a really bad crash and we’re just lucky that no one was more seriously injured with the fire and with the impact from the collision,” he said. “Injuries were relatively minor.”
The crash was still under investigation as of Thursday morning, and no citations had been issued or charges filed as of press time.
lchristensen@tooeletranscript.com