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By Ed Lewis elewis@timesleader.com
Times Leader Staff Writer
Ed Lewis on Facebook   |   @TLEdLewis on Twitter

KINGSTON TWP. – An extensive leak from a truck hauling hundreds of gallons of automotive transmission fluid created treacherous road conditions from Tunkhannock to Shavertown on Monday afternoon, causing a shutdown of state Route 309 for several hours.

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A storm drain in the parking lot of the Back Mountain Shopping Center in Shavertown is monitored after a truck leaked transmission fluid onto the shopping center’s parking lot on Monday.

Pete G. Wilcox/the times leader

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However, the only crash reported was a school bus transporting children from Dallas Elementary that skidded off the road and nearly struck a utility pole. Dallas Superintendent Frank Galicki said the bus slid off at state routes 309 and 415 near the Dallas Shopping Center and Walgreens at about 3:55 p.m.

“All the children were checked out and were not injured,” Galicki said, noting that the children were then transported by another bus.

Steve Bekanich, director at Luzerne County Emergency Management, said a storage truck leaked a few hundred gallons of the fluid in the southbound lane of Route 309. Bekanich said the leak is believed to have started in the area of Bowmans Creek in Wyoming County and continued until the truck was stopped in the parking lot of Thomas’ Market in Shavertown.

The worst of the leak occurred there, where approximately 100 gallons of the fluid flowed from the parking lot into storm drains and then into Toby Creek, Bekanich said.

Responders used quick-dry and absorbent pads to soak up the fluid. Shavertown fire Chief Gary Beisel said booms were placed in the creek to attempt to block or absorb the oil. The truck, owned by Craft Oil Co. of Avoca, was parked and “just dumping oil” when responders arrived, he said.

The company estimated about 140 gallons leaked out of the 275-gallon plastic container. Beisel was unsure how the leak occurred. The remaining fluid was transferred to another container and taken away, he said.

The highway wasn’t closed there, Beisel said, and responders were on scene for about two hours.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation scattered anti-skid material on 309, but the roadway remains slick in some areas, said Jack Dodson, the chief of the Kunkle Fire Department and the emergency management director for Dallas Township.

“Every time the guy would stop, it would leak real bad,” he said, referring to the truck. Then the tires from other vehicles would spread it around more, he said.

He said the situation didn’t come to light until the vehicle was stopped in Shavertown.

From about 3 p.m. until roughly 6:30 p.m., the highway was closed from the intersection of state Route 29, through Dallas and to Shavertown, he said.

All southbound vehicles were detoured down Route 29 to Route 11, where they connect in West Nanticoke.

“That’s where we were sending all the tractor-trailers. Traffic was backed up for miles,” he said.