Revere fire chief: Tanker truck company had local rollover

REVERE – Abenaqui Carriers is a name familiar to Fire Chief Eugene Doherty who said the fiery explosion involving one of the company’s trucks in Chicopee Friday almost occurred six years ago in Brown Circle.Doherty said an Abenaqui tanker carrying over 5,000 gallons of gasoline tipped in the rotary at Broadway, Route 107 and Squire Road spilling fuel and tying up traffic.”Everything was fouled up for the whole day. I can’t believe how fortunate we were not to have a fire,” Doherty said, adding the truck driver said the accident occurred when he was cut off in traffic.Western Massachusetts emergency responders and an Abenaqui truck driver were not so fortunate Friday at 9:30 a.m. when a company tanker truck overturned on Interstate 91 and exploded.The driver was critically burned after initially being trapped in the truck cab following the crash. Witnesses told The Republican of Springfield that more than a dozen drivers pulled over to try to free the man, some carrying blankets and jackets to smother the flames.”They were trying to get him out of the cab, but everybody who tried would be stopped by the flames,” said Gregory Coleman of Westfield. “There were just a bunch of people running towards the fire. It was crazy.”The tanker was carrying 9,500 gallons of gasoline and 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel, Abenaqui said in a statement. The North Hampton, N.H. company said the rollover was apparently caused when the driver, whom they did not identify, swerved to avoid a disabled vehicle. They said speed doesn’t appear to be a factor.A driver for Abenaqui rolled over a fuel tanker in Everett in December, sparking a fire that severely damaged several homes and destroyed dozens of cars.Abenaqui’s federal safety rating at the time of the Everett accident was satisfactory. The company’s 105 drivers and 83 trucks had a “better than average” record, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.Doherty said the Brown Circle crash was one of six or seven to occur at the rotary in the last 10 years. None of the rollovers ignited the trucks’ fuel loads or gasoline in the service station located on the rotary’s Route 107 side.Abenaqui spokesman Hugh Drummond on Friday said “a quick check” of company records did not locate information on an accident involving a company truck in Revere.”To the best of our knowledge, it was not our vehicle,” Drummond said.Doherty said the rollovers merit a state investigation into pay practices used by trucking companies. He said some firms pay drivers “as per load” promising them an hourly rate provided they deliver the load in a specified time period.He said the time allotted to the driver is often too short, prompting truckers to use excessive speed.”They drive like cowboys. Those are the situations causing the most problems,” Doherty said.