Explosives Spill Shutting Down Interstate at Rush Hour

By midday, the north bound lanes of Interstate 75 around Hamilton Place were finally moving smoothly.Just a few hours earlier traffic was backed up for miles from 5am until about 8am after a messy accident. Chattanooga Police say an 18 wheeler blew out a tire and crashed around the 75/24 split just before three this morning. During the wrecdk, the bottom of the trailer broke and some of the cargo fell onto the road.

"The truck continued on the lane up to exit 4A off to Shallowford road. The Cargo was an explosive agent," said Chattanooga Fire Department Spokesman Bruce Garner.

That material: ammonia-nitrate fuel oil, a blasting agent like dynamite used in mining and to blow up rock. The material is not explosive until it's mixed. Still, with a truck hauling hundreds of pounds of it, and some of it spilled on roughly two miles of interstate crews raced to clear it up quickly during rush hour.

"Did not represent a threat of motorists because it wouldn't just low up in it's own you have to do certain things to make it work as a blasting agent." said Garner.

Our camera was there as HAZMAT, the bomb squad and ATF agents worked for five hours to clear the road. Garner says since the crash happened in the northbound lanes, the effect wasn't as severe as it could have been.

"If the accident had occurred on the southbound lanes where incoming traffic for morning rush hour that alone could have made it a lot worse. It could worse but fortunately it wasn't."

An environmental clean-up crew finished up the job making sure the explosives were completely off the road. All the bags were accounted for that fell from the truck.