State Cops Cite Driver In Route 8 Chemical Spill

State police cited a Fairfield man behind the wheel of a pickup truck towing several drums of chemicals that crashed Thursday afternoon, spilling some of the chemicals onto the highway and forcing the road’s closure for more than 12 hours.

The man, Chris Roche, 38, was cited for failure to maintain a proper lane and ​“several other commercial vehicle violations,” according to a state police accident report.

Lt. J. Paul Vance, a state police spokesman, said Friday about noon that a report detailing those ​“several other commercial vehicle violations” had not yet been completed.

Crews had to tear up a portion of Route 8 north where the chemicals spilled. The substances are used in spray foam insulation.

Roche’s truck and trailer were inspected by the state police ​“truck squad,” a team of troopers specializing in inspecting trucks and commercial vehicles.

“They go over a commercial vehicle with a fine-toothed comb to make sure all the laws are met,” Vance said.

Though he could not list the charges specifically, he said ​“there’d be a whole host of commercial vehicle violations” Roche would face in connection with Thursday’s crash.

Roche crashed about 1:51 p.m. Thursday about a half-mile north of Exit 18 on Route 8 north, according to the report on the crash written by Trooper Ryan Culbertson.

Roche was driving his Ford F250 in the right lane of the highway, towing a 24-foot box trailer, when ​“for an unknown reason,” the vehicle swerved to the right, hitting the guard rail.

The vehicle then swerved left and hit the concrete jersey barrier.

Because some of the drums of chemicals — isocyanate derivatives used in spray foam insulation — spilled, the road was closed for hours as local firefighters and DEEP helped to contain the spill.

Crews from the Department of Transportation milled a section of the road where the spill occurred overnight as a precaution. State DOT officials said they will go after Roche to reimburse the state for the money spent to deal with the cleanup.

Traffic on secondary roads throughout the lower Valley was a nightmare Thursday afternoon and evening, as drivers bumped off the highway sought alternate routes.

Route 8 was reopened about 4:30 a.m. Friday.

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Meanwhile, a tractor-trailer crashed a few hundred feet south of the box trailer crash, though a draft accident report said the driver of that truck, Andrew Hujsak, 61, of Buxton, Maine, was uninjured.

The draft report did not say the box trailer crash caused the tractor-trailer crash, just that Hujsak ​“lost control of the vehicle and traveled to the left side of the roadway and struck the jersey barrier,” after which the tractor-trailer jack-knifed.

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