UPDATE: Spilled paint closes the eastbound Indiana Toll Road for ... - WNDU https://t.co/ipDf2AhRNy
— Greater Bristol (@GreaterBristol) August 4, 2016
A recent semi crash left one Indiana roadway covered in white paint as the vehicle lost its shipment in a rollover. According to WNDU—which called the spill "shocking and unprecedented"—they’re used to the roads getting covered in white stuff, but usually it’s just snow.
The accident took place around 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, when the semi drifted off the road for an unknown reason. When the driver tried to bring the truck back, the vehicle flipped, covering the toll road near mile marker 101 with 23,000 pounds of white latex paint. According to early responders at the scene, an entire stretch of the road was covered in a layer of paint over an inch thick, that was also seeping into the ground on both sides of the roadway. The driver survived, but was taken to the hospital because of injuries.
An environmental group came to the scene to handle the mess, noting that the paint that seeped into the ground would have to be excavated at a later time. To clean up the thick layer of paint on the road, the group used a classic clean-up trick, adding sand to the paint to turn it from a liquid to a solid, making it much easier to handle. The road was closed for six shours, causing a traffic jam that stretched on for miles.
But the hundreds of smashed paint cans—and most of the paint itself—were cleaned up by the end of the day, allowing the road to reopen, erasing a road that, for a while, had been just one white line.