ITD suspends megaload shipments after crash south of Moscow
The Idaho Transportation Department has suspended the ongoing Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil megaload shipments after a crash south of Moscow on U.S. Highway 95, the Moscow-Pullman Daily News reports. One of the giant loads of oilfield equipment bound for the Alberta oil sands crashed into a van, causing severe damage and pushing the van into another vehicle; however, no injuries were reported. "This was clearly driver error," Idaho State Police Capt. Lonnie Richardson told the Daily News. Imperial Oil spokesman Pius Rolheiser told the Moscow newspaper the company "won't move until we're confident this won't happen again." Click below for a full report from the Associated Press and the Daily News.
ITD suspends oil equipment shipments after crash
MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) — The Idaho Transportation Department is suspending shipments of Imperial Oil refinery equipment from the Port of Lewiston after a collision involving one of the equipment modules.
The suspension includes three shipments that were scheduled to travel on Wednesday, department spokesman Adam Rush said in an emailed statement.
Idaho State Police Capt. Lonnie Richardson said Tuesday's collision involved one of three shipments that left the port Tuesday night. The shipments were supposed to stop at a staging area on U.S. Highway 95 before traveling through Moscow in a convoy, but one driver tried to leave before southbound traffic was released, Richardson told the Moscow-Pullman Daily News (http://bit.ly/syfcbI).
The module hit a van causing severe damage and pushed that van into another vehicle. No one was injured, Richardson said.
"The driver did not follow the approved safety plan," Richardson said. "This was clearly driver error."
Imperial Oil spokesman Pius Rolheiser said the company "won't move until we're confident this won't happen again."
"It's our understanding that the damage to the vehicle was relatively minor, but we take incidents like this very seriously."
The modules are traveling from Idaho, through northwestern Montana to an oil sands project in northeastern Alberta, Canada.
___
Information from: The Moscow-Pullman Daily News, http://www.dnews.com
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
