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Jackknifed truck blocks 114/121

A semi-truck jackknifed on Texas 114 and Texas 121 Monday afternoon causing a diesel spill that shut down westbound highway lanes for five hours.

No injuries were reported, and no other vehicles were hit as the truck careened across four lanes of traffic just past Texan Trail in the DFW Connector construction zone. But the accident caused major traffic headaches during rush hour as westbound traffic was diverted to frontage roads.

The truck was traveling in the far right lane at 2:10 p.m. when it hit a crash cushion, which ripped off the fuel tank and ruptured it, said Lt. Todd Dearing, public information officer for Grapevine police.

The driver told police he was trying to stay farther to the right to give cars more room, Dearing said.

"He left the roadway and his truck struck the crash cushion," Dearing said. "When he did that, it ripped off his right-side saddle tank."

The driver lost control and struck the left barrier wall. The jackknifed truck blocked the two left lanes of traffic and fuel spilled across all four lanes. The fuel caught fire, but Grapevine fire crews put it out quickly.

The next several hours were spent waiting for the hazardous materials crews to arrive to clean up the spill, Dearing said.

"It took them a long time to get there," he said.

Selma Stockstill, speaking for the connector project's NorthGate Constructors, said that while the accident blocked drivers, it did not affect construction work except for causing some delay in workers moving around within the project. Work on the driving lanes begins after 8 p.m., she said. By then the accident scene had been cleaned up.

"During the day time, the majority of our work is behind the barriers," Stockstill said.

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