Tanker truck overturns, catches fire on I-55

At about 1:20 p.m., a truck hauling diesel fuel overturned while traveling northbound on Interstate 55 and exploded into flames just before the William Street exit at Cape Girardeau.

Giant plumes of black smoke were visible throughout most of the city after the diesel explosion. By 2 p.m., Cape Girardeau firefighters gained control of the blaze, which quickly spread into a culvert ditch beneath I-55. Firefighters sprayed foam and built a mud wall on the culvert to prevent flames from following the leaking diesel fuel further south.

Onlookers say the accident was caused by a white convertible driving southbound on the northbound ramp of exit 96. Two exiting motorists swerved to miss the wrongway driver before he jerked his own vehicle to the right into oncoming traffic on I-55.

Chris Millbrook, 30, of Schaumburg, Ill., was driving home from his daughter's birthday party in Arkansas. He said he was following the diesel tanker in the right lane at a distance of about 15 feet as they approached exit 96.

Millbrook was preparing to pass the tanker when he saw it swerve to avoid something ahead.

"He pulled left really hard so I swerved left too, because I didn't want to hit whatever it was. That's when the back of his truck just jumped up into the air and then it came down sideways and just slid across the highway," he said.

Millbrook and others said the tanker rolled over three or four times before it skidded to a rest. They said it was already on fire before it stopped sliding. Millbrook said "shrapnel" from the sliding tanker flew back and pelted his car as he pulled off to the ditch on the opposite side of the highway.

The tanker driver, whose identity is unknown, then staggered out of the vehicle, Millbrook said.

"His face was bloody, his hands were bloody. He just kind of staggered as he walked up the hill before a couple of guys grabbed him who had seen the whole thing," Millbrook said.

Onlookers said workers from the nearby Victorian Inn rushed out with buckets of ice and wet towels for the burned, bleeding driver.

The driver of the white Sunbird SE Convertible was luckier, though. Observers say he walked out of his car, which was flattened on its passenger side, without a scratch.

"He started walking to the road like it was no big deal. The first thing he said was, 'Hey, can I use your cell phone so I can get a ride?' He was worried about being late to work. I was like, 'You're not going to work today,'" said Amanda Crocker, 22, of Cape Girardeau who was two cars behind the wrong-way driver on the off ramp.

The driver's name is being withheld at this time.

"He looked very dazed." said Sandy Alvarado of Sikeston, Mo., who was the first driver on the offramp to swerve to miss the convertible.

Watch burning tanker

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