ACCIDENT Tanker overturns, injuring driver

The cracked utility pole was very close to the overturned truck's fuel tanks.
WARREN -- An 18-wheel tanker truck flipped onto its side in a residential neighborhood Friday and cracked a high-voltage pole after coming around a bend on Parkman Road Northwest at Stiles Street.
The wreck made a terrible noise, an eyewitness said.
"But what was worse was when you heard the glass, and you knew he was in it, and we were trying to get him out," said Stephanie Poe, who helped attend to the driver.
The name of the driver was not available at press time. It was also undetermined whether he had been cited by police.
Poe was pulling her car out of a friend's driveway at 1000 Stiles, on the bend, at about 12:30 p.m. when the southbound Predator Trucking tanker loaded with thousands of pounds of pulverized lime came by.
"I felt bad for him," she said of the trucker. "He said he could see the road beneath him when he slid."
She and four men ran to get the driver out of the truck. "I thought it was worse -- I thought it was fuel," she said. "I said, 'Oh my God, that's why we've got to get him out.'"
The driver had a bad cut on his elbow, and a head injury, she said.
"He crawled out on his own, but we had to get him to lie down and calm down," Poe said.
The driver was taken by ambulance to a hospital. Police were able to speak only briefly with him.
Observation
Poe said it seemed to her that the truck was going the speed limit when it appeared to lose breaking, the load shifted, and it slid.
"He was doing the 30 speed limit for this road -- I've seen others who didn't," she noted.
A Warren police accident investigator photographed the scene. Ohio Edison and a trucking company representative were on hand as the fire department considered how to empty the tanker, upright the truck and keep the pole and transformer from falling. The pole was leaning up against the massive aluminum tank of the truck, creating the possibility of a hazard. "Electricity and aluminum aren't friends," said police Sgt. Gary Riggins.
Predator Trucking of McDonald's fleet consists of dry bulk tanker trucks and dump trucks.
Police had sealed off the road between Stiles and West Market Street. Oil-absorbing material was placed under the truck's fuel tanks, which didn't appear to be leaking. Oil and antifreeze were leaking from the truck. Safety officials worried about the truck's fuel tanks when the truck was uprighted around 3:30 p.m. by two large tow trucks from May's and Underwood's towing companies, the fire department said. The pole didn't fall, and the tanks didn't leak.