Tuesday's Ammonium Nitrate Spill On Tulsa Highway Cleaned Up

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, OK -- All lanes on U.S. Highway 75 under I-244 in downtown Tulsa are back open, after the driver of a semi lost control and overturned his 18-wheeler. 

The accident happened on the northeast corner of Tulsa's Inner Dispersal Loop just before 5 p.m. Tuesday.  Tim Smallwood, with the Tulsa Fire Department, said the driver was trying to exit I-244 onto northbound Highway 75, when he lost control and the semi overturned.

"It looks like we have a guy that was going just a little too fast driving an 18-wheeler, coming around the curb, it looked like it had a weight shift from all the ammonium nitrate he carried," Smallwood said.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said the semi was carrying ammonium nitrate, the same fertilizer used in the Oklahoma City bombing. 

According to the Highway Patrol's accident report, "All 78,000 lbs. has spilled onto the highway."

The northbound lanes of U.S. Highway 75 under I-244 were shut down so crews could clean up the accident. 

They were closed for just over two hours while traffic was diverted onto I-244 eastbound.

The driver of the truck was taken to a Tulsa hospital in fair condition.