Chemical spill shuts down Hwy. 210

A pickup towing a trailer carrying a chemical commonly used to clean swimming pools crashed Wednesday on Highway 210 near Highway 330, setting off a three-hour hazmat scare.

The driver was westbound on the 210 when a motorcyclist rode between the truck and another vehicle, said CHP Officer Daniel Hesser.

"The driver of the vehicle thought the motorcyclist was going to lose control, so he applied his brakes and turned to the right," Hesser said.

The move sent the truck up an embankment near Base Line, overturning the trailer and spilling about 350 gallons of a sodium hypochlorite solution.

The mixture is used to disinfect swimming pools and to treat water supplies.

The truck's driver, Travis Torres, 40, of Anaheim Hills, was taking the chemical to a water treatment plant, but the CHP and the San Bernardino Fire Department didn't know where.

Torres got out of the truck and collapsed, overcome by fumes, said San Bernardino fire Division Chief Mike Alder by telephone.

An AMR ambulance was first on the scene. One paramedic was overcome by fumes and he and Torres were taken to a hospital in the ambulance, Alder said.

A Cal Fire San Bernardino crew arrived and three of the five firefighters aboard the engine also were overcome, Alder said. They were taken to a hospital.

No one was seriously hurt, officials said.

Inhaling chlorine gas released from concentrated hypochlorite solutions can cause nasal irritation, sore throat and coughing, said the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a division of the Centers for Disease Control, on its website.

Contact with hypochlorite solutions may cause skin burning, inflammation and blisters, the agency said.

The CHP, assisted by San Bernardino and Redlands police and San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies, closed the 210 between Highland Avenue in northern San Bernardino and Base Line in Highland, eventually extending the closure to Interstate 10 in Redlands.

Officials also shut down northbound and southbound 330, Adler said.

No one was evacuated.

Staff writers Dug Begley, David Danelski and Lora Hines contributed to this report.

Reach Steve Barrie at 951-368-9466 or sbarrie@PE.com

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