Car wreck wreaks havoc

Who knew a two-vehicle collision on Monday morning would cause a hazardous material incident?Well, no one.

Jonathan Barnes, a part-time chemistry instructor at Eastern's extended campus in Corbin, was carrying hazardous materials in his vehicle at the time of the accident, according to Corey Lewis of the Richmond Fire Department.

Barnes was turning left off Red House Road and onto the Eastern bypass at 8:15 Monday morning.

Barnes drove into the path of a Dodge truck driven by Elvin Phillips, said William Reardon, the Richmond police sergeant. Phillips was not injured.

Barnes was driving his two daughters, ages seven and eight. The girls were not injured.

Barnes was taken to Pattie A. Clay Regional Medical Center and was released Tuesday.

The hazardous materials as determined by emergency officials were sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid.

Diane Vance, the chemical safety officer for the colleges of science said sodium hydroxide is used is drain cleaners and hydrochloric acid is a weak acid.

Both materials are liquid and, if mixed, become salt water.

Lewis said he found out the vehicle had hazardous materials, so he tracked down the wrecker at Hamm's BP station in front of Big Lots. The containers had opened in the accident.

"We shut down the BP station and two adjacent roads," Lewis said. "We isolated the materials according to protocol."

According to Joey Hamm, a worker at Hamm's BP, the car was brought in and about 20 minutes later, the emergency services came in.

Hamm added that the emergency officials neutralized the car with water.

"They locked us and the customers in," Hamm said. "That was fun."

Officials closed down the BP for almost three hours, locking those customers and workers inside and turning away many other customers.

Hamm said a guy who was just getting his oil changed had to be locked in for that time.

Officials opened the BP station around noon.

"I lost business due to that," Hamm said.

But, on the bright side, "no one (involved in the clean-up) was harmed," Lewis said.

No charges have been filed.