Las Vegas Sun

February 12, 2012

Currently: 50° | Complete forecast | Log in

Material in overturned truck on U.S. 95 found not to be dangerous

Highway was shut down for a short period of time after rollover accident

By Dave Toplikar (contact)

Monday, Dec. 7, 2009 | 1:47 p.m.

The threat of a potentially dangerous substance in a pickup truck that overturned today on U.S. 95 Highway near Indian Springs led authorities to shut down the road and begin an emergency response in nearby schools, officials said.

However, a short time later, authorities found out that the "radiological material" that was reportedly on the truck in cylinders was medical waste and not dangerous, so the road was reopened, according to Chelita Rojas, trooper and public information officer for Nevada Highway Patrol.

"Once they figure out it was a very, very low-level radiological material that wasn't harmful to anybody, they reopened the road," Rojas said.

According to information from Rojas and Brian Allison, public information officer for the Clark County Fire Department, the vehicle carrying the medical waster rolled over on U.S. 95 at milepost 84.

Although there were initial reports that the vehicle was a semi tractor-trailer, Rojas said it was later learned it was a Toyota Tundra pickup truck.

Allison said schools in the area were placed in a lock-down "shelter in place" mode until the incident was deemed safe.

There were no injuries in the accident, Allison said.

Discussion: comment so far…

Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.

Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.

No trusted comments have been posted.

Post a comment

Commenting requires registration.

Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy.

If you would like to submit your comment as a letter to the editor, you may submit it here.

Most Popular

  • Viewed
  • Discussed
  • E-mailed
  • Facebook