PITTSBURGH (AP) — Harrowing and horrible -- that's how drivers who got stuck in gooey black muck on the Pennsylvania Turnpike last night are describing the experience.
A Turnpike spokesman says a leaky valve on a tanker spread driveway sealant over 40 miles, disabling about 150 cars and damaging others.
Bob King of the Chicago area told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review it caught drivers off guard. King says people didn't know what it was or what to do. He says it had to be "an incredible amount of tar."
Laura Frick, who was traveling from Cleveland to New Jersey for Thanksgiving, told WTAE-TV that now she would have to turn around and go back home
Even some state police and turnpike maintenance vehicles had to be towed away.
Traffic was moving normally by this morning.
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184-a-06-(Mike Baglio, driver, in interview)-"rocking, uh, unevenly"-Mike Baglio says the gooey stuff that a tanker leaked onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike stuck to his tires. COURTESY: WPXI-TV ((mandatory on-air credit)) (23 Nov 2011)
<<CUT *184 (11/23/11)>> 00:06 "rocking, uh, unevenly"
185-a-10-(Karen Phillies, driver, in interview)-"on everybody's tires"-Karen Phillies says driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike was a mess last night because of the sticky gunk from a leaking tanker. COURTESY: WPXI-TV ((mandatory on-air credit)) (23 Nov 2011)
<<CUT *185 (11/23/11)>> 00:10 "on everybody's tires"
APPHOTO PATAR101: A car with its wheels covered in driveway sealant sits in a parking lot in Harmar, Pa., after exiting the Pennsylvania Turnpike Tuesday night, Nov. 22, 2011. A flood of the gooey material dropped from a tanker truck disabled more than 100 cars and damaged an unknown number of other vehicles along a nearly 40-mile stretch of the Turnpike, officials said. (AP Photo/Valley News Dispatch, Erica Hilliard) (22 Nov 2011)
<<APPHOTO PATAR101 (11/22/11)>>
