WEST BATH — A tractor-trailer hauling furniture jackknifed on Route 1 in West Bath at about 1:12 p.m. Wednesday, closing the busy highway to traffic and threatening New Meadows Lake with leaked diesel fuel.
The truck driven by Jason Hilton, 32, of Sterling, Virginia, hydroplaned in the deluge of rain, striking a guardrail and coming to rest in the middle of the road, just at the town line next to the lake.
Hilton was taken to Mid Coast Hospital with minor injuries, according to police.
There were no other vehicles involved.
The saddle tank on the truck ruptured when it hit the right guardrail. The tank can hold up to 100 gallons of diesel fuel, and it had begun to spill. Brunswick and West Bath fire departments set up dikes to prevent diesel from leaking into the lake.
“That’s a lot of diesel to spill in the pouring rain near a river,” Lt. Brian Quinn of the Sagadahoc Sheriff’s Department said. “EPA doesn’t like that very much.”
The state Department of Environmental Protection arrived at the site around 2:30 p.m. to assess the spill, and with the help of the Brunswick Hazmat Response Team it was cleaned up.
Northbound Route 1 traffic was being rerouted from Cook’s Corner in Brunswick onto Old Bath Road.
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