By Kathryn F. PickardSpecial to The South Alabamian

A Haz-Mat crew prepares to clean up after the crash of a truck hauling chemicals on U.S. Highway 43, just north of Grove Hill Monday morning. The crash resulted in the death of driver Oscar Lee Walley of State Line, Miss. (Photo by Kathryn F. Pickard)

A State Line, Miss. man was killed early Monday morning when the tanker truck he was driving ran off Highway 43 between Grove Hill and Thomasville and caught fire.

According to Clarke County EMA Director Roy Waite, the truck wrecked about 5:30 a.m. The cab was pinned beneath the tank, which had been loaded with 30,029 gallons of 93 percent sulfuric acid.

The driver, Oscar Lee Walley, 56, was driving for Safeway Trucking out of Louisiana. He had left AKZO Noble in Axis with the sulfuric acid and headed north to GEO Specialty Chemicals in Demopolis.

First responders at the scene discovered that in addition to the cab being on fire, the sulfuric acid was pouring from a hole in the tank onto the cab and the ground below.

“The county’s road and bridge department got there and diked up the area, so we don’t think any of the acid got into Bassetts Creek,” Waite said. Streams near the accident site feed into the larger creek.

Haz-Mat technicians were called in from West Central Alabama Emergency Response Team, Grove Hill Fire Department and Jackson Fire Department.

“Sulfuric acid is highly corrosive. It will eat through wood fiber, skin, just about anything it touches. We had the qualified technicians suit up to see if they could repair or plug the hole in the tank,” Waite explained. Two attempts were made to repair the hole and two attempts were made to plug the hole, but they weren’t successful.

Another tanker was brought in by Safeway and a pump was brought down from Demopolis in hopes that the remaining sulfuric acid could be pumped from the wrecked tanker to the other truck. About 300 gallons of the acid remained in the truck. Workers were not able to pump the acid out, so it was allowed to spill on the ground where the other acid had poured out.

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) was on the scene Monday afternoon to ensure clean-up efforts got underway. Complete Environmental and Remediation Company out of Bay Minette is adding the neutralizing agents to the soil and will also dispose of the affected soil once the acid is neutralized.

Water samples from Bassetts Creek are being tested and if ph levels are affected, then neutralizing agents will also be added to the water.

Clean-up efforts began Monday evening and continued Tuesday morning, when the wreckage was removed.

Walley’s body was sent to the forensic lab in Mobile for an autopsy.

“We had a real good response from the people in this county. Everyone worked well together and things went very smoothly,” Waite said.

Agencies responding to the incident included Grove Hill, Helwestern, Fulton and Jackson fire departments, Grove Hill, Fulton and Thomasville police departments, Clarke County Sheriff’s Department, Clarke County EMA, Clarke County Road and Bridge Department, Alabama Department of Transportation, Assistant County Coroner Wayne Lathan and Lifeline Ambulance Service.

Alabama State trooper Darrell Linder is investigating the accident.