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About 9,000 gallons of fossil fuels spilled onto the road Monday morning in a collision in North Carolina, county officials said. Three individuals were reported injured and have been transported to a nearby hospital.
Both northbound and southbound lanes of North Carolina Highway 87 were closed down between Doc Bennet Road and Sandhill Road after a crash involving a fuel tanker and a passenger car occurred at about 8:30 a.m. ET, according to county officials. The identities and medical statuses of the three injured people have not yet been released.
While officials have not yet said if any criminal charges will be filed, who or what caused the collision, or how exactly the crash played out, they have said that approximately 9,000 of fuel was spilled onto the surrounding area of the highway as a result of the incident.
The collision happened just south of Fayetteville at the corner of N.C. 87 and Tom Starling Road close to Gray's Creek. Newsweek reached out to the nearby North Carolina Department of Public Safety State Highway Patrol Office but did not immediately hear back.
Nearby Gray's Creek Volunteer Fire Department Station 24 was the initial first responder agency on the scene. They established the Incident Command Post on site. Multiple other agencies have been on the scene, including Cumberland County Emergency Management, Vander and Cotton Volunteer Fire Departments.
The City of Fayetteville Fire Department Hazardous Material Team has also been on-site to manage the fuel spill, according to officials. Additionally, the North Carolina Department of Transportation was on the scene redirecting traffic.
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Transportation for updated information, but the officer on the scene did not immediately return phone calls.
Arial video footage taken by WRAL appeared to show little or no damage to the actual road surface of Highway 87. The tanker appeared to have veered off the highway into a dirt and grass ditch next to a Shell gas station, where the fuel appeared to have spilled.
Last month, another tanker truck accident in North Carolina along Highway 70 spilled about 3,000 gallons of fuel, and resulted in the driver's death, according to law enforcement. Michael Blydenburgh, 59, of Selma, North Carolina was the driver, now deceased.
In March, another tanker truck incident on North Carolina along Highway 95 spilled roughly 4,000 gallons of fuel and left the driver, 25-year-old Bryan Cook of Erwin, North Carolina dead.
There were no available updates on the injured parties' medical statuses as of press time.
