A tractor-trailer loaded with boxes of bottled water plunged through the guardrails at Bowmaker Pond in Sharon Springs last Wednesday, shutting down Route 10 for hours as a crew from Roosevelt’s Towing gingerly lifted the rig off a barely-buried water line.
According to police, the accident happened at about 1:30pm when an unidentified driver of the NFI trucking 18-wheeler fell asleep behind the wheel and drove through the guardrail into about four feet of water.
Officials said the driver’s last GPS coordinates had indicated he was in Lawyersville; neighbors said the truck—apparently lost—came down Luenburg Turnpike.
The Sharon Springs Fire Department coordinated efforts at the popular fishing site, with help from the Cobleskill Fire Department and the Schoharie County Hazmat team.
According to Sharon Springs Fire Chief Greg Baxter, the truck’s oil pan was punctured during the accident, leaving a black swath from Route 10 into the pond and leaking fuel into the water.
Booms and absorbent pads were brought in to absorb the spill and as the event unfolded, more than 100 people watched from shore.
Schoharie County Sheriff Tony Desmond said the call for the crash had originally placed it at Engleville Pond, the village’s water source.
Water from Engleville Pond passes through Bowmaker’s in a pipe buried only a foot or two, he said, which made the job of winching out the rig a delicate one.
The crew from Roosevelt’s Towing spent much of the seven-hour ordeal in the water, securing both ends of the tractor-trailer to cables before pulling it forward, toward the Route 10 intersection with Route 20, just before dark.
The driver of the rig wasn’t injured and waded out of the water.
An investigation was continuing and tickets are pending.