Arsenic spills from truck

Press, 7 September 1989, Page 4

Arsenic spills from truck

PA Hamilton A liquid arsenic spill at Waharoa was one of two truck accidents which kept Waikato emergency services busy on Tuesday night and early yesterday. The Hamilton Fire Service spent three hours trying to contact a tanker owner after it started spilling some of its 5300 litres of liquid arsenic on to State highway 27 at 6 p.-m. on Tuesday, a Fire Service spokesman said. Three appliances from Matamata and the Hamilton Decontamination Unit were called out to clean up the arsenic.

Full protective clothing and breathing equipment were used when the truck, which drove on to Matamata, began fuming, the spokesman said. In the second accident just before 5 a.m. yesterday, one horse had to be put down when a group of about 10 raced on to Cobham Drive after a truck and trailer crashed through a fence at the Hamilton Light Horse Club.

Two horses suffered minor injuries and one was put down when they were hit by cars, Senior-Sergeant Stan Blair, of the Hamilton Police said. Six of the 10 escaped horses were rounded up in nearby school grounds, where they were collected by their owners.