People Who Had A Worse Day Than I Did
Motorists brave hot liquid asphalt to aid driver of overturned tanker truck
July 23, 2007 - 1:53 pm
By: SEAN PATRICK SULLIVAN
TORONTO (CP) - The threat of being burned by searing hot liquid asphalt didn't discourage a group of Good Samaritans from coming to the aid of a stricken motorist Monday after his tar-laden tanker truck overturned on Canada's busiest highway.
Several passing motorists braved the blistering hot, sticky tar that was oozing from the overturned tanker truck as they tried to help the seriously injured driver, trapped in his upended cab and covered from head to toe in his own scalding hot cargo.
The truck was travelling on Highway 401 near Toronto when it took a perilous turn too quickly just before 6 a.m., causing it to roll on its side and skid across the highway, police said.
The impact caused 38 tonnes of hot liquid asphalt to explode through the front of the tanker, filling the driver's compartment, Ontario police Sgt. Cam Woolley said.
"This is very, very hot - about (175 C), almost twice the heat of a car engine."
The 41-year-old driver was in serious but stable condition at a Toronto hospital Monday with first and second-degree burns to much of his body.
It took almost an hour for emergency workers to remove the man from the truck, mostly because his hair and parts of his face had adhered to the seat, Toronto Emergency Medical Services duty officer Connie Christie said.
"A big part of the delay was just trying to free his - Oh, isn't that awful? I can hardly say it without it turning my stomach," Christie said.
"The pain just must have been excruciating . . . morphine didn't even cut the pain. He was in absolute agony."
The driver was "all black, completely covered in tar (and) pinned underneath the steering wheel and couldn't get out," motorist Gary Knierieman told all-news channel CP24.
"We had to talk to him to calm him down."
Knierieman and several other motorists who stopped to help ended up getting covered from head to foot in the sticky black goo, many of them forced to give up their footwear for the cause.
"That tar was hot," Knierieman said. "My shoes are melted."
Ontario police Cst. Dave Woodford said he will be recommending the motorists for a citation that celebrates people who go above and beyond in helping to save lives.
That includes Ivan Landry of Brampton, Ont., who police say was the first on the scene, holding the driver's head up so he could breathe.
Landry was reportedly taken to hospital with superficial burns to his arms, legs and feet.
Another motorist, Tammy Roberts, said the driver wasn't talking when she arrived at the scene.
"We kind of woke him up and he was telling us the tar was all over his face and his eyes," Roberts said.
The slippery and sticky tar made the rescue very difficult, Woolley said.
"They were in about eight to 10 centimetres of hot liquid asphalt, which as it hits the air starts to form a glue-like substance," he said.
Police say it is unlikely the driver's name will be released unless he is charged.
The truck skidded off the road in the same spot where a tractor-trailer hauling a load of liquid sugar crashed last week.
July 23, 2007 - 1:53 pm
By: SEAN PATRICK SULLIVAN
TORONTO (CP) - The threat of being burned by searing hot liquid asphalt didn't discourage a group of Good Samaritans from coming to the aid of a stricken motorist Monday after his tar-laden tanker truck overturned on Canada's busiest highway.
Several passing motorists braved the blistering hot, sticky tar that was oozing from the overturned tanker truck as they tried to help the seriously injured driver, trapped in his upended cab and covered from head to toe in his own scalding hot cargo.
The truck was travelling on Highway 401 near Toronto when it took a perilous turn too quickly just before 6 a.m., causing it to roll on its side and skid across the highway, police said.
The impact caused 38 tonnes of hot liquid asphalt to explode through the front of the tanker, filling the driver's compartment, Ontario police Sgt. Cam Woolley said.
"This is very, very hot - about (175 C), almost twice the heat of a car engine."
The 41-year-old driver was in serious but stable condition at a Toronto hospital Monday with first and second-degree burns to much of his body.
It took almost an hour for emergency workers to remove the man from the truck, mostly because his hair and parts of his face had adhered to the seat, Toronto Emergency Medical Services duty officer Connie Christie said.
"A big part of the delay was just trying to free his - Oh, isn't that awful? I can hardly say it without it turning my stomach," Christie said.
"The pain just must have been excruciating . . . morphine didn't even cut the pain. He was in absolute agony."
The driver was "all black, completely covered in tar (and) pinned underneath the steering wheel and couldn't get out," motorist Gary Knierieman told all-news channel CP24.
"We had to talk to him to calm him down."
Knierieman and several other motorists who stopped to help ended up getting covered from head to foot in the sticky black goo, many of them forced to give up their footwear for the cause.
"That tar was hot," Knierieman said. "My shoes are melted."
Ontario police Cst. Dave Woodford said he will be recommending the motorists for a citation that celebrates people who go above and beyond in helping to save lives.
That includes Ivan Landry of Brampton, Ont., who police say was the first on the scene, holding the driver's head up so he could breathe.
Landry was reportedly taken to hospital with superficial burns to his arms, legs and feet.
Another motorist, Tammy Roberts, said the driver wasn't talking when she arrived at the scene.
"We kind of woke him up and he was telling us the tar was all over his face and his eyes," Roberts said.
The slippery and sticky tar made the rescue very difficult, Woolley said.
"They were in about eight to 10 centimetres of hot liquid asphalt, which as it hits the air starts to form a glue-like substance," he said.
Police say it is unlikely the driver's name will be released unless he is charged.
The truck skidded off the road in the same spot where a tractor-trailer hauling a load of liquid sugar crashed last week.