The hazardous spill that prompted an evacuation, the closure of Interstate 10 and a school district to cancel classes should be cleaned by this evening, Tucson officials said.
On Tuesday at about 2:45 p.m., a commercial truck hauling liquid nitric acid in a box trailer rolled over on Interstate 10 near Kolb Road. The driver was killed in the crash.
Arizona Department of Public Safety called on people living nearby to shelter in place, though the area affected varied from three miles to a half-miles since from the time of the wreck to Wednesday afternoon.
The recovery and mitigation efforts on the hazardous materials were temporarily setback due to weather conditions, the agency said. Crews removed the material from the truck Wednesday and used dirt to stop further gassing.
All schools in the Vail School District will be closed on Wednesday after a deadly crash caused a nitric spill Tuesday, causing traffic concerns and evacuations.
In a letter to parents, Vail School District Superintendent John Carruth said incident command requested that all Vail schools be closed for both safety and to ease traffic conditions.
The district has previously told parents that school start times and bus routes on Wednesday would be pushed back by two hours due to traffic concerns.
The crash, which happened at milepost 272 on Interstate 10 in Tucson, involved a commercial truck that rolled over and leaked nitric acid, according to officials. Video courtesy of SirToppleBot via Twitter.
