Fuel tanker trailer tips

Bigfork narrowly avoided what could have been a tragic accident Friday morning.

A fuel tanker was headed north bound on Montana Highway 35 and went to turn right on to Montana Highway 209. In an effort to avoid a school bus, the truck driver took the turn too sharp, causing its pup trailer to fall on its side into a ditch at the southeast corner of the intersection.

No gas leaked from the trailer, other than an amount that equaled less than two gallons as it was transferred to another truck.

"It could have been a whole different ball game," Bigfork Fire Chief Wayne Loeffler said. "We got really lucky."

Bigfork Volunteer Fire Department responded to the scene at roughly 7 a.m. and both Bigfork and Ferndale fire departments provided traffic control.

Highway 35 was closed to traffic from south of Bridge Street to shortly past the intersection due to safety concerns.

It took more than four hours for traffic to be able to move through the area again.

The clean-up was complicated by the fact that the pup trailer was laying on the side where the hoses needed to be inserted to empty it out into another tanker before it was pulled upright, Loeffler said.

All crew members worked cautiously, aware of the danger of any sort of spark, Loeffler said.

"If that gas would have leaked, I would have evacuated a large area," he said.

The last truck accident at that corner occurred last year, when a dump truck overturned caused a small gas spill, he said.

"There's been nothing major like this type of situation," Loeffler said.

No injuries were reported and no other vehicles were involved in the crash.

In addition to local fire departments, the Montana Highway Patrol, Montana Department of Transportation and Bolster's Towing also worked at the scene.