Tire blows out causing tractor-trailer to crash, catch fire

A blown-out tire sent a tractor-trailer loaded with feed into a concrete divider, rupturing its fuel tank on Highway 67 South Wednesday morning.

The crash occurred just before 9 a.m. in the southbound lanes, about one-quarter mile north of the Highway 160 exit.

North and southbound traffic was halted, and traffic was rerouted onto Highway C (old Highway 67), said Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Clark Parrott.

By mid-afternoon, he said, the northbound lanes had reopened, but clean-up of the spilled grain/feed continued in the southbound lanes until about 4:15 p.m.

The crash, Parrott said, occurred as the truck ran off the left side of the road, struck a concrete divider and caught fire.

When Butler County firefighters arrived, they found the truck’s cab was fully involved, as was the front end of the trailer, said Shift Commander Shawn Baker.

The truck, owned by the Gaines Cattle Company and operated by Timothy Power, was hauling some type of feed, Baker said.

Power reported the left front tire/steering tire on the tractor exploded, jerking his truck into the concrete barrier. It reportedly took Power about 300 yards to get his truck stopped.

“The diesel tank ruptured,” Baker explained. “He had a blow out; the blow out put him in the barrier wall, and that’s what ruptured the diesel tank.”

Baker said the top end of the diesel tank burned off, spilling diesel everywhere.

“We had to use the foam to extinguish that,” he said. “It took a little bit” to put out the fire.

Power was not injured.

“He had a couple scrapes, but he’s perfectly fine,” Baker said. “He got lucky on that one.”

Firefighters, he said, remained on the scene until wrecker personnel removed the wreckage and left sometime before 2 p.m.