Mannix Porterfield
CHARLESTON — Firefighters would retain total say-so when dangerous chemicals leak in a traffic accident in a proposal aimed at getting stalled traffic moving again, its sponsor insisted Friday.
Last summer’s horrific traffic tie-up on and off the West Virginia Turnpike after a tractor-trailer flipped with chemical cargo just shy of the Chelyan toll plaza inspired the bill, Sen. Mike Green, D-Raleigh, pointed out.
As traffic stalled more than 10 hours on the Turnpike, and even longer on a road nearby after a second truck rammed an overhead bridge, criticism began to focus on a volunteer fire department.
Green’s bill specifies that these duties belong to the fire units and how the Division of Highways is to react.
Nothing in the bill diminishes the power of fire officials to control and clean up any hazardous materials, the senator stressed.
“No, it does not,” he said. “They (fire officials) are still in control of the accident scene. What this legislation does is provide for the actual control of the highways.”
Green said the bill is necessary to define the roles of respective agencies.
In last year’s massive traffic snarl, the senator noted, the toll road was shut down more than 10 hours.
“And they were still letting people on the Turnpike, knowing there was not going to be any movement of traffic,” he said.
All the highways authorities may do in such accidents is take control of an accident as far as deciding whether other vehicles may have access to a road, and the manner in which traffic is to move.
A similar measure has been offered in the House by Delegate Orphy Klempa, D-Ohio.
Should a chemical tanker overturn, the fire department will still wield the final word, Green said.
“They will maintain control of that accident scene and they will work with the Division of Highways as far as determining when, if any, access will be granted to that highway,” he said.
“The purpose of it is alleviate any traffic congestion as quickly as we can.”
Green said the assumption is that the DOH will work in tandem with fire departments to “ensure that the safety of residents and people traveling through that scene will not be harmed in any way.”
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