PA turnpike freshly sealed!

Too bad it wasn't on purpose.
http://news.yahoo.com/sticky-goo-pa-turnpike-disables-over-100-cars-120956851.html

Somebody is gonna be in deep goo...

Hey, free undercoating.

Snowplows to push it off the road? How could that dude not know his truck was leaking THAT badly?

now thats what I call a sticky situation

retread tires anyone?

Gives new meaning to the idea that Pa. sticks it to you when you use the turnpike.

This is going to be one hell of an insurance claim against the truck especially if they factor in epa cleanup. Everyone will get a hand in on this one.

I work for an insurance company. My office handles PA.

We insure the truck.

It is a rough day around the auto department.

Oh man... how bad would that suck to have to clean up. When I re-seal my driveway I use maybe 15g and I have to throw away everything it touches or it spreads to whatever that stuff comes in contact with. Imagine a sealer rooster tail. They need to drive a couple trucks spilling mineral spirits thru there.

In reply to Sonic:
Wow

that really will buff out......

Sonic wrote: I work for an insurance company. My office handles PA. We insure the truck. It is a rough day around the auto department.

Doh...sorry to hear that. Keep your head down. As memory serves you are working outside the auto department now so keep a low profile lest they call you back to aid in the fun.

I would be interested to hear the total bill. I mean, holy crap how do you possibly get that off everything.

Yea, fortunately my job now is dealing with serious bodily injuries in litigation, so I have nothing to do with the situation, except for hearing about it today, and they pay me too much now to pull me into that stuff. Still sucks for the people that have it.

The poor girl in the commercial auto dept that got the claim had a terrible day. When she checked her voicemail, she had 59 messages, all from today. Yea.

I think by the end of the day this was transferred to a team up in the general liability department, which is the right thing, but still my company. It didn't belong in the auto department, because the damage did not result from any driver negligence in a "rules of the road" standpoint, but from a faulty valve or loading/unloading issues, so it is a different part of their policy.

As to how much it cost, who the hell knows. I'm guessing they will just replace a lot of stuff, and give lots of time to shops to scrape/clean stuff, but there will be lots of bumpers, radiators, tires, etc replaced as it is cheaper than cleaning. The company likely (I'm not sure) has a $1 million limit, but with a few hundred cars affected, and the cost of the highway cleanup, that might all get eaten up. I feel badly for anyone who had damage who doesn't have comprehensive insurance of their own, as it may be a while before this all gets sorted out.

I saw the first breaking reports last night through the day after update on Pgh news tonight. They ain't cleaning no tires, knock 'em down, clean the rims n mount new tires. Seemed to peel off some fender liners not too bad but one Grand Cherokee had the inner liner fall off from the gooey weight. It looked like ya could fill a good two gallon bucket off each wheel w/ that E36 M3. It'd be a wonder if that goo didn't schmooze down into the brakes and suspension too. One mechanic peeled a big flat glob from a PU bed, it rolled up like play dough, so who knows. Paint might be another story.

News said the truck driver will be cited and may face a fine of $1000.

I had a truck blow his tank of diesel in front of me today and I spent a couple of miles worrying about the slipperiness. I feel like I got off easy.

The Turnpike website give a phone number directly to the Truck's insurance company.
http://www.paturnpike.com/

In reply to jrw1621:

Anyone calling now is in for a long wait. We are closed until Monday. The monday after T-day is basically the worst day of the year for the auto damage folks, and having this on top of that certainly doesn't help.

Sonic wrote: In reply to jrw1621: Anyone calling now is in for a long wait. We are closed until Monday. The monday after T-day is basically the worst day of the year for the auto damage folks, and having this on top of that certainly doesn't help.

Regards to your people, Sonic. Holy cow, there's so much suckage to go around with this one that it's hard to believe.

Janel works in highway construction. She says it doesn't sound like sealant - it's more slippery and doesn't build up. Her guess is tack. Yuk.

More Than 450 Complaints Filed After Tar-Like Substance Spills On Turnpike

PITTSBURGH -- Hundreds of complaints have been filed by drivers whose cars were damaged by a driveway sealant that was spilled on the Pennsylvania Turnpike last week. So far, officials said more than 450 motorists have filed complaints to police. A tanker truck had a leaky valve, causing the substance to leak on a 40-mile stretch of the road between the New Castle exit and the Canton service plaza.

450... ouch $$

I wish it were 450. It turns out that my business line was tasked with handling this. I personally don't have any, but my unit has to take up all of the slack of the people who have been put on the spill response.

As of today, we had over 1000 (one thousand) claims from this. We found that our system will only let us put 999 subfiles on one claim, so that's fun.

Mostly, it is tires, but lots of other weird stuff. Sucks.

Fortunately, I picked the right time to go on vacation, we leave on Thurdsay for CA for a week to go Lemons racing @ Buttonwillow. Once I get back, a lot of the work will be done, but still plenty to do...