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Septic Truck Crash Injures Driver, Closes Notch RoadStaff reports
iBerkshires
05:09PM / Monday, July 20, 2009
A sewer tanker truck went off Notch Road in the Mount Greylock State Reservation, injuring the driver and closing the road on Monday. |
Update: Notch Road was opened a few days later.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A septic truck went over a guard rail and down an embankment on Monday afternoon, dumping an unknown amount of sewage off Notch Road. The crash closed the freshly paved road to the top of the state's highest peak.
The driver of the truck sustained injuries in the crash and was taken to North Adams Regional Hospital, according to state police; state police did not identify the driver but said the truck is owned by Berkshire Village Septic.
The accident occurred about a mile into the Mount Greylock State Reservation around 1 p.m. The driver was reportedly heading down the mountain with a full load when he went off the road. Traffic was being flagged off at the park's gate. State police and North Adams Ambulance Service were called to the scene.
 Anne Roach, spokeswoman for the State Department of Conservation and Recreation, said the road would likely be closed for several days until the guard rail could be repaired. Roach said the spillage was minimal.
"They'll clean up what they need to do," said Roach. "There was damage to a guard rail that has to be repaired before the road can be opened. ... You don't want to not have a guard rail available on that road."
The roads to Mount Greylock were opened in May after a two years and $21 million in reconstruction. New steel guard rails were overlaid with wood to re-create the work done by the Civilian Conservation Corps on the peak 70 years ago.
Mount Greylock can be accessed from Rockwell Road in Lanesborough, where the park's visitor center is located. |
Your Comments
iBerkshires.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue. Name-calling, personal attacks, libel, slander or foul language is not allowed. All comments are reviewed before posting and will be deleted or edited as necessary. Comments are closed for this article. If you would like to contribute information on this article, e-mail us at info@iBerkshires.com |
| not sure the existing guard rails did a damn thing in preventing the truck from going over the edge and spilling its precious cargo. why close the road until they reinstall that section? i drove the road recently and my thought was the wood guard rail system was more for show than preventing vehicles from going over the edge. could it be the present guard rail system is poorly designed & engineered, inadequate and if so, a waste of taxpayer dollars? will we be spending more dollars down the road to remediate the problem? time will tell.... | | from: what a stinker | on: 07-20-2009 12:00AM
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| the "wood" guard rail is actually disguising a sturdier one made of metal. It's probably stronger than it needs to be. | | from: whatever | on: 07-20-2009 12:00AM
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| I'm thinking a truck fully loaded with sewage would have gone through just about any guardrail made...perhaps the driver was not familiar with mountain roads. | | from: my take | on: 07-21-2009 12:00AM
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| We could vibrate those guardrails back and forth like twigs when they were first but in. You are right, they are for show only. | | from: Will Horton | on: 07-21-2009 12:00AM
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| coming down a steep hill like that, why would they put up wooden rails. they would have a better chance with steel guardrails or was it up for looks. what a dumb move | | from: confused | on: 07-21-2009 12:00AM
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"... You don't want to not have a guard rail available on that road."
What difference does it make? It obviously did not help in this mishap.
| | from: For What? | on: 07-21-2009 12:00AM
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| Exactly how fast was this man going? You would think he would slow down on those roads. Especially with a truck that size. I would also like to know how this mess is going to be cleaned and will it leach into the ground water. | | from: curious | on: 07-21-2009 12:00AM
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| North Adams Fire was also there | | from: bystander | on: 07-21-2009 12:00AM
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| I use to work for joe, and i know all his drivers are great at they do, this area needs to put there brains together and fix the roads correctly, | | from: rob | on: 07-21-2009 12:00AM
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| If everyone commenting on the gaurdrails would please read before writing you would have noticed that the gaurdrails ARE MADE OF STEEL they have a wood covering over them to help blend them in with the environment and keep the look of the originals. As far as the travel speed of the truck how many cars have you seen coming down that mountain with smoking brakes. So Quick to judge. And yes I'm sure the sewage seeped into the ground lol.You have to be kidding me. | | from: learn to read | on: 07-21-2009 12:00AM
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| First of all I don't work for the National Transportation Safety Administration so I really can't tell you what the rating of the guard rails up there are. I do know that most guard rails wouldn't have stopped that from happening but would've slowed the vehicle down so it didn't travel as far over the embankment as it looks like it did from the pictures. People need to take into account the total weight of that truck fully loaded which was probably near the maximum weight by law. You need to take into account the weight of the truck as well as how many gallons it holds and then the weight of the load. Water alone weighs just over 8 pounds a gallon and with septic I'm sure it's more. The biggest problems I have with the situation are what was that truck doing coming down that side when it's the windiest compared to Lanesboro? Why when NA Fire asked what the tanker was carrying were thay told by dispatch that it was water? When are our Emergency Responders going to start being given the correct information? Will it take someone getting killed to change things? | | from: Concerned Party | on: 07-21-2009 12:00AM
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| I don't think the truck was owned by Berkshire Septic in Lanesboro, but by an Eastern Mass Company! | | from: Stinky | on: 07-22-2009 12:00AM
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| These guardrails incorporate steel as well as wood. They could function as a guardrail without the wood. The wood is there for beauty. If you take a 13 foot long piece of steel it's pretty flexible. That's the point. A safely designed guardrail is meant to flex so that when people impact them they aren't like hitting a brick wall. This particular guardrail has been tested to a superior standard than the one it's been installed for. On this road it is expected that a very high percentage of the vehicles that pass along it are light vehicles. Therefore you install a guardrail designed for light slow vehicles not heavy slow vehicles. Why? Because a guardrail designed for heavy slow vehicles will not flex when light slow vehicles impact it. When that happens a passenger in a light slow vehicle will suffer from higher g-forces and suffer more seveer injuries. From what I understand the tanker truck was actually on its side skidding along the road before it ever hit the guardrail. Notice the scrape marks on the roadway in the photo. This means that the driver took the turn to fast. Rolled the truck over. Then ROLLED over the guardrail rather than actually impacting it. Before you all get talking about costs think that the typical TL-5 steel guardrail costs 5 or 6 times per foot what this wood/steel guardrail costs. In addition my bet is a lot of people would be complaining about the large ugly hulking steel guardrail ruining the scenic beauty of the roadway. | | from: If you don't know what you're talking about... | on: 06-21-2010 12:00AM
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