Fuel truck en route to Puerto Jimenez overturns, spills 4,500 gallons of gasoline and diesel

November 13^th, 2015 (ICR News) Cleanup work continued Friday morning after a truck delivering thousands of gallons of fuel overturned on the only road connecting Puerto Jimenez to the Osa Peninsula Wednesday evening, closing the passage for 17 hours and spilling 4,500 gallons of gasoline and diesel into the environment.

The incident took place shortly after 6pm on Wednesday when the driver lost control of the vehicle for unknown reasons.  The road remained closed until 3pm on Thursday while thousands of gallons of diesel and gasoline leaked from the truck, making its way through vegetation and down a nearby mountain slope.

Fire officials on Thursday used heavy equipment to dig a pit for fuel from the spill to collect and hopefully avoid contamination of the water table.  The truck is estimated to have spilled about 4,500 gallons of the 9,000 gallons of gasoline and diesel which it was transporting.

Fire retardant foam was also sprayed over the area of the spill.  Some cleanup operations continued on Friday.

The driver of the vehicle was unhurt in the accident, officials said.