CAMDEN, Ark. — A commercial truck carrying an unknown chemical exploded Wednesday morning on a highway in Arkansas, killing the driver and creating a massive crater in the road, authorities said.
The explosion happened west of the city of Camden, or about 100 miles south of Little Rock.
The Arkansas State Police identified the driver late Wednesday morning as 63-year-old Randall McDougal of El Dorado, Arkansas.
The agency said McDougal was hauling ammonium nitrate — a highly combustible chemical used in fertilizers — to Texarkana for Blann Trucking Company, a firm headquartered in Hampton, Arkansas.
“It looks like a bomb went off,” Camden Fire Chief Robert Medford told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “There’s a big hole in the ground on where the truck was at.”
The Arkansas Department of Transportation said crews would begin repairing the 15-foot crater once the wreckage from the accident is cleared. The affected road is a low-volume road that carries about 1,300 vehicles per day, department spokesman Danny Straessle said.
The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. The Trucker Media Group is subscriber of The Associated Press has been granted the license to use this content on TheTrucker.com and The Trucker newspaper in accordance with its Content License Agreement with The Associated Press.
