ASHLAND — The county’s EMA director sang praises of local emergency agencies for sidestepping disaster following an early January propane tanker crash on U.S. Route 30.
The Jan. 6 crash between a propane tanker and a semi sent two people to the hospital with suspected serious injuries and shut down all lanes of traffic on Route 30 for hours.
Anne Strouth, Ashland County’s EMA director, said multiple local agencies stepped up to provide a bevy of services, such as hazardous material clean-up and evacuation logistics.
She named Ashland Fire Division, Ashland police, county sheriff deputies and other area fire departments as integral in the event’s clean-up.
“Any little spark or anything would have set that off,” she said, adding she could see and hear the hiss of the propane escaping the tanker that day. The tanker contained around 2,800 gallons of propane, she said.
What happened?
The Ferrellgas propane tanker, according to an Ohio State Highway Patrol crash report, was traveling north on State Route 89. The tanker, driven by Bernard Parsons, “failed to yield at a stop sign and was struck” by a semi-truck.
Parsons was cited. Ashland Municipal Court records show the case has been resolved and fines have been paid.
The collision caused the tanker to overturn and the semi to drive off the road. A crash report states both vehicles received disabling damage.
Parsons and the driver of the semi were treated at UH Samaritan for suspected serious injuries. Parsons also had a passenger, a man from Oklahoma. He was treated for minor injuries at the scene of the crash, according to the OSHP report.
Strouth said residents in the area were displaced from their homes for four-and-a-half hours.
“We didn’t allow them to go to their cars,” she said, adding any spark could have spelled disaster. “So they were kind of stuck in the temporary shelter that they were evacuated to for a while.”
Thankfully, she said, no one beyond the drivers in the crash were harmed.
Problem intersection?
The crash happened at the intersection of U.S. Route 30 and State Route 89.
It represents the seventh crash there since Ohio Department of Transportation installed a so-called Reduced Collision U-Turn (RCUT).
Kaitlyn Thompson, an ODOT spokeswoman, said the RCUT’s construction completed in December 2021. Since then, there have been seven crashes, which amounts to a 78% decrease.
The intersection had been a problem for years, causing 32 crashes between 2013 and June 2021, according to ODOT data. Of those, 18 involved injuries.
Prior to the RCUT intersection, ODOT had installed “dual stop ahead warning signs” with yellow reflective post strips to ramp up safety measures.
The agency also installed stop signs with red reflective strips and added yield signs “in the median area to encourage drivers to cross U.S. 30 in two stops.”
“Crashes and crash severity are down, which was the intent of the (RCUT) project,” Thompson said. “We know RCUTs will not eliminate all crashes, but the purpose is to reduce crashes, in particular, crash severity.”