Tanker Truck Plunges into River in California, Causing Asphalt Spill

A traffic accident occurred in Stockton, California, when a tanker truck loaded with asphalt veered off the road and plunged into the Trappers Lough Waterway, spilling a large amount of high-temperature liquid asphalt into the river. The viscous asphalt spread across the water’s surface, forming a large, dark oil slick that drifted downstream with the current, adhering to the vegetation along the banks and the sediment on the riverbed. It poisoned fish and amphibians in the river and posed a risk of contaminating the groundwater along the riverbanks.