The northbound lanes of Interstate 295 were closed Wednesday near the Gardiner exit after a tanker truck collided with a Maine Turnpike Authority vehicle while technicians were working.
Around 1:30 p.m., Maine State Police troopers and the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Unit responded to the area of mile 49 in West Gardiner after several people reported a collision involving a tanker truck and a dump truck, according to a news release from Maine Department of Public Safety spokesperson Shannon Moss.
Allen Hewett, 61, of Sidney, was driving a truck operated by Dube Transport Inc. northbound on I-295 when Moss claimed he failed to yield to Maine Turnpike Authority officials trying to remove a lane blockage imposed for toll plaza renovations.
The truck collided with a dump truck outfitted with a crash attenuator trailer, which shields workers from oncoming vehicles and flipped over. Moss stated that the vehicle spilled virtually all 8,000 gallons of landfill leachate. The MTA dump truck was “severely damaged” and landed in both northbound lanes.
According to Moss, the driver of the MTA dump truck had minor injuries in the incident and was sent to Maine General Hospital in Augusta.
“Hewett was issued a citation for failing to maintain control of a motor vehicle and failing to yield to a highway maintenance vehicle,” Moss told me. The I-295 northbound lanes that were closed between Exits 49 and 51 are scheduled to reopen by 5 p.m., Moss said.
The Maine Department of Transportation, MTA, Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Gardiner police and fire departments, Dube Transport Inc., and AC Towing all assisted on the scene.