Sunday morning at approximately 8:04, Poplarville Police officers were dispatched to a potentially dangerous chemical leak after an 18-wheeler hauling numerous large containers of liquid plastic flipped in Poplarville, Police Chief Butch Raby said.
The Bihtx, LLC 18-wheeler from Texas was travelling westbound on Interstate-59 at a high rate of speed when it exited toward the Love’s Travel Center for a pit stop, Raby said, causing it to over turn on its right side. During the incident, containers of liquid plastic were damaged and began to leak. At that time, Raby said an employee of Love’s Travel Center came to assist the driver, who was unharmed during the accident, and clean the spill.
After Poplarville Police officers arrived on scene, they called the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to assess the chemical spill so safety precautions could be taken. After making its assessments, Enhanced Emergency and Environmental Response Services also arrived on the scene to give its own evaluation of the situation while waiting for the clean up equipment to reach the scene.
As of Monday morning, the chemical spill was safely cleaned. Raby said, there were never any environmental threats, including air pollution, throughout the accident because the two environmental emergency agencies monitored the spill.