The Highway Patrol reported on their message board Monday that an accident occurred on I-26 westbound at the 48 mile marker in Laurens County at 5:55am.
The Laurens County Coroner, Nick Nicholls, says Robert Daniel Charping, of 411th St. Greer, died at the scene. He was a passenger in a three-axle tanker truck involved. Nicholls says the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, neck and chest.
Highway Patrol says the tanker went off the left side of the road, came back across and hit the guardrail before going back off the right side of the road where it overturned.
Troopers say the driver of the truck, 41-year-old Timothy Lee McAbee, of Greer, was transported by Medi-Vac to Greenville Memorial Hospital. He was not wearing a seatbelt. The deceased passenger was wearing a seatbelt.
A Department of Health and Environmental Control official says an agent with DHEC is on the scene of the accident.
Adam Myrick at DHEC says the vehicle was a small tanker carrying waste cooking oil. DHEC officials estimate the vehicle had 2,400 gallons on board. The tanker left the highway and overturned, dumping the oil down an embankment into a creek.
DHEC is trying to determine the impact this will have. Myrick says an environmental contractor has been on site since the accident occurred laying down booms and traps to suck up the oil. They estimate the cleanup could take up to two weeks.
Myrick says they don’t believe that there is anything left in the truck.
The diesel tanks on the truck were not damaged.
Watch wspa.com for updates.
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