A truck driver was killed in an accident on the Dalton Highway. Alaska State Troopers report that 60-year-old Richard Allen Flansberg of Delta Junction lost control of a tanker truck and went off the road Monday afternoon, about 40 miles north of Livengood.
A situation report issued Tuesday afternoon by the state Department of Environmental Conservation says the truck driver lost control at milepost 36 of the Dalton at about 3 p.m. and rolled the rig.
The report doesn’t say whether the driver was injured. It says most of the diesel in the 9,500-gallon tanker that was in tow spilled onto the ground, and it says all but an estimated 2,000 gallons was recovered.
The report says workers with Fairbanks-based Big State Logistics, which owned the truck, were on-site soon after the wreck and recovered some of the spilled diesel. It says company workers and DEC staff were on-site surveying the spill.
Troopers say Flansberg was not wearing a seat belt, and that excessive speed and road conditions may have been factors in the fatal crash.
The report says a passenger in truck: 60-year-old Larry Bloodworth, of Anchorage, was injured and transported by Alyeska Pipeline Service Company to a medical facility at Pump Station 6.
The tanker was punctured and leaked diesel fuel.
A state Department of Environmental Conservation report says 2,000 gallons of fuel spilled.
The report says workers with Fairbanks-based Big State Logistics, which owned the truck, were on-site soon after the wreck and able to soak up some of the spilled diesel, but most soaked into roadside soils. Fuel remaining in the damaged tanker was pumped out and recovered.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that the driver of the tanker has died. Additionally, the story previously stated that the wreck occurred on Tuesday. It happened on Monday.
Tim Ellis is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
