A two-vehicle collision Tuesday morning caused a leak of about 4,000 gallons of crude oil on the Colorado 13 bypass near the Rifle city limits and authorities are searching for one of the drivers.
“The driver has not been located yet,” Colorado State Patrol Trooper Nate Reid said Tuesday.
At around 5:50 a.m., a Saturn sedan was heading south on the highway as a semitrailer hauling crude oil was going north. The Saturn drifted into the northbound lane and struck the semi-truck “side-to-side in the opposite direction,” according to Reid. That caused the sedan to rotate and the semitrailer to run over the rear passenger end of the sedan. The semi then jack-knifed, struck a guard rail and tipped onto its side near mile point 2 on Colorado 13.
The driver of the semi, a 32-year-old Grand Junction man, complained of an injury but stayed on the scene Tuesday morning. Any occupants in the other vehicle fled before law enforcement arrived, according to Reid.
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