Crime & Safety

Car/Truck Crash Spills 3,400 Gallons of Gas onto 405

Fire units from Boeing, Redmond, Woodinville, Duvall and Eastside Fire & Rescue responded to the accident.

A 47-year-old Kirkland woman was injured and Interstate 405 northbound in Bellevue was closed for almost five hours Sunday night after she apparently lost control of her car and hit a tanker truck, causing the truck’s trailer to roll and the entire rig to slide across the freeway.

The accident also caused the tanker to spill some 3,400 gallons of gasoline, and state Department of Ecology sources said Monday that while some of it went into the storm drain system, it does not appear to have reached Lake Washington.

Nipaporn Lertdamrongluck was taken to Overlake Hospital Medical Center in Bellevue after the crash, in which her Toyota Camry left the right lane of I-405 northbound just north of State Route 520, hit a barrier on the right side of the freeway and then spun back into the freeway, striking the tanker truck, according to the Washington State Patrol.

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The Kenworth truck’s trailer then rolled over, causing the whole rig to slide across all lanes and come to rest on the left side of the freeway. The truck driver, 39-year-old Sergio Salvador Olson Jr., of Sultan, was not injured. Both drivers were wearing seatbelts.

Lertdamrongluck was in stable condition at Overlake on Monday morning, a hospital spokeswoman said.

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The truck had a fuel carrying capacity of about 11,000 gallons, and lost about 3,400 gallons, most of which appears to have gone into the ground, said Ecology Department spokeswoman Katie Skipper.

However, a fuel recovery vessel was on Lake Washington monitoring an outfall in Yarrow Bay, near the Bellevue/Kirkland boundary.

"Right now there is no gas in Lake Washington," Ecology Department spokesman Dick Walker said Monday morning. "It has not been detected and we don't expect it to because we've got everything sealed off." Officials had feared earlier that gasoline had made it into the lake.

A federal Environmental Protection Agency crew was at the accident scene, where a strong odor of gasoline remained, causing air pollution concerns, said Skipper.

An engine from Kirkland Fire Station 25 on Finn Hill assisted the Bellevue Fire Department in responding to the accident.

"Two of our guys from Station 25 are haz/mat qualified, and they assisted Bellevue," Kirkland Fire Department Battalion Chief Mike Haschak said Monday morning.

According to the Kirkland Firefighters Facebook page, the KFD hazardous materials crew monitored the spill of highly flammable gasoline with special equipment and applied absorbent material to prevent as much as possible from reaching storm drains.

Fire units from Redmond, Woodinville, Duvall, Eastside Fire & Rescue and Boeing also responded to the accident.

The Washington State Patrol is investigating the cause of the crash, which occurred at about 9:45 p.m. and caused northbound 405 at SR 520 to be closed for four hours and 45 minutes.


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