AUGUSTA — Traffic returned to normal on Interstate 95 Saturday near the Bond Brook overpass following efforts to clean up a tanker truck crash that happened about 2 a.m. Friday.
State Police continue to investigate the cause of the accident, but believe the driver, Rudy Baldeo, 39, of New Jersey, likely fell asleep. He was treated and released for non life-threatening injuries at a local hospital.
No final determination has been made on whether to file charges against Baldeo, a state police dispatcher confirmed Saturday.
About 400 gallons of Nopcote, a finishing agent used in paper making, spilled from the tanker into a ditch that feeds Bond Brook. An undetermined amout of the chemical made it into the brook, leaving a “skim milk white plume,” a spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Protection said Friday.
DEP spokeswoman Samantha Depoy-Warren could not be reached for further comment on Saturday.
City officials initially shut down three wells that supply water to the Greater Augusta Utility District, but reopened two by Friday afternoon. The third will remain shut down until full staff returns to work on Tuesday.
Traffic in the northbound lanes was backed up as much as eight miles Friday as work crews offloaded about 3,400 gallons of the chemical from the truck. By Saturday morning, all workers were gone from the scene and all lanes were open on the Interstate.
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