A large-scale battery delivery overturned on a highway after the truck carrying the batteries collided with a car, overcorrected, tipped sideways and dumped the load, leading to a fire that lasted more than 24 hours.
A truck full of batteries caught fire after an accident on a California highway on Friday, July 26, just before 6 a.m. PST, leading to significant delays as the lithium product burned through the weekend.
According to the California Highway Patrol:
The collision occurred when the driver of a 2020 Freightliner, which was loading a flatbed truck with a sealed container containing six industrial lithium-ion batteries, lost control and ended up on the right shoulder of northbound I-15. The battery container then became detached from the low loader and also rolled onto the right shoulder.
The truck was carrying just over 75,000 pounds of lithium batteries, six in total, headed to a project in Wisconsin. The battery manufacturer and owner of the solar power plant have not yet been made public.
Due to the location of the accident, heading east from Los Angeles, it is unlikely that the batteries were manufactured by Tesla. The Tesla Lathrop, mega-factory in California is directly north of this facility and would likely have used a different set of highways to reach Wisconsin.
The San Bernardino County Fire Department stated, “Multiple attempts were made to move the container from the highway shoulder to open ground using heavy equipment from the County Fire Special Operations Division, including an excavator and a bulldozer. Ground improvements and grading were completed in preparation for moving the container to a safe area for long-term mitigation and cleanup. However, the weight of the container, in excess of 75,000 pounds, has meant that these efforts have thus far been unsuccessful.”
The fire burned for at least twenty-four hours and posed significant hazards. It was announced that crews had completed enough work to reopen two lanes of the highway by 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, July 28. About an hour later, all northbound lanes were reopened. As of Tuesday afternoon, government officials said the fire was still burning to some extent.
Also Tuesday, the California Highway Patrol released the driver’s name, but their possible injuries were not disclosed.
Caltrans, California’s transportation manager, said they were “coordinating the delivery of essential supplies and medical aid, including 100 gallons of diesel and 60 gallons of gasoline, to stranded motorists on I-15 and to those diverted to I-40 .” In addition, several pallets of water were delivered to the site as temperatures in the desert began to rise. The Highway Patrol also conducted welfare checks on vehicles stuck in the mile-long traffic jam.
This content is copyrighted and may not be reused. If you would like to collaborate with us and reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
Popular content
