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Reports say gas delivery driver in Newton Falls fell asleep
By Ed Runyan
NEWTON FALLS
The gas spill Tuesday morning at Convenient Food Mart on South Milton Street involved a gas-delivery driver who may have fallen asleep while unloading fuel into the store’s tanks, Newton Falls Police Chief Eugene Fixler said.
When the driver was awakened and informed that the gasoline was leaking onto the parking lot of the gas station about 9 a.m., the driver replied that there was a small hole in the hose, Fixler said.
“It’s possible he didn’t realize it was that much,” the chief said of the gasoline that spilled out.
The driver attempted to absorb the gasoline with a product on board the truck, but his attempts were insufficient, and he left the station.
Newton Falls Fire Department personnel arrived at the scene first, and someone on the firetruck noticed the delivery truck leaving the area and called ahead to the Lake Milton Police Department, which made a traffic stop on the truck.
Deputy Harold Wix, environmental officer for the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office, is investigating the actions of the driver and will handle any criminal charges that might result from the driver’s actions, Fixler said.
Wix estimated that about 200 gallons of fuel was spilled. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Trumbull County HazMat cleaned up the spill.
Meanwhile, Fixler, who said he was asked to resign recently because of the amount of money his department is spending on personnel, said there was no Newton Falls police officer available that morning to help out with the gas spill and to attempt to locate the truck driver.
The sergeant on duty was busy with a prisoner, and Fixler also wasn’t available, the chief said.
“It would have been nice to have an officer to track him down,” Fixler said of the driver.
Fixler said he’s putting together a plan for village officials that he will deliver Monday to try to staff his department with the limited amount of money the village has available.
He’s been urged to find ways to run the department that might include having no officer on duty part of the time.
He’s planning to talk to the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office to discuss a relationship with that department that could fill in the gaps.
Fixler said he doesn’t know whether he can propose something that will enable him to keep his job, but he is going to try.
“I’m laying out one-man shifts,” he said, adding that there are unpaid reserves and auxiliary officers who can be called upon.