Part of the A50 was shut just before 4pm on Wednesday when the waste truck hit a fire engine, which was tackling a car blaze at the side of the road. The incident closed the westbound carriageway for more than three hours and the eastbound side was closed until the early hours of yesterday morning. It was closed between the junction for the A6 into Derby and the M1. There were delays in Chellaston, Swarkestone and Alvaston.
Yesterday, Paul Reeves, an officer at the Environment Agency who attended the scene, said: “There was potential of pollution run-off after the fire, either of the foam used to extinguish the flames, or more seriously oils or fuels from the vehicle or contents of the tanker. “It was full of human sewage and if that had ruptured there would have potentially been a serious pollution incident.”
He said that a stream, called Aston Brook, ran about 50m from where the collision took place. “If the tanker had been full, I would estimate that it would have been carrying at least 10,000 litres of sewage,” said Mr Reeves. “And the brook is fairly small there, so that amount of sewage going into a stream of that size would have killed the majority of the fish living in it.”
Mr Reeves said officers had checked out the stream yesterday morning and had “found no evidence of any problems”. It potentially could have been serious but I think because of the circumstances and because of the actions of the fire service and Highways England and partners the tanker did not rupture.” He said there was a small amount of oil, probably from the engine, on the carriageway and that had been cleaned up by Highways England, which resurfaced the road after the fire.
A Derbyshire police spokeswoman said they would be investigating the cause of the collision. She said there had been no arrests and the lorry driver had been taken to hospital. The extent of his injuries are unknown. A spokeswoman for Highways England said the diversions put in place had been the standard routes agreed with the local authorities for the area.
Following the incident, deputy chief fire officer Gavin Tomlinson said everybody involved was “lucky to be alive” and it could have been much worse. He said: “The eight gas cylinders on our fire engine exploded and that, along with the rest of the situation, made it a very challenging incident. The lorry driver managed to get out of his cab and the four firefighters managed to escape. The lorry driver was taken to hospital but his injuries are not serious. We had to use 14,000 litres of water to battle the fire so it has been challenging.”
