Contributed Photo/Courtesy Border Patrol: A Border Patrol agent pulls the driver out of a crashed tanker truck on I-10 west of Willcox.
Contributed Article
WILLCOX – Willcox Station Border Patrol agents responded to a crash west of Willcox involving a tanker truck of hydrogen peroxide that closed westbound Interstate 10 for approximately 12 hours last Thursday afternoon.
On Aug. 30, at approximately 3 p.m., an agent traveling west on I-10 came across the tanker truck laying upside down near mile marker 330. The agent noticed a small fire in the container and observed that the driver was trapped inside the cab. Multiple agents arrived at the scene to help extract and stabilize the driver until emergency medical services arrived.
With the assistance of Arizona Department of Public Safety, Cochise County Sheriffs Office, the Willcox Police and Fire departments, and community bystanders, the fire was extinguished and the scene secured. The driver was transported to a local hospital for treatment.
Collaboration between state, local, tribal and federal law enforcement agencies not only provide a greater force to combat transnational criminal activity in southern Arizona, it also helps to save human lives. Tucson Sector Border Patrol is grateful for the assistance from local law-enforcement partners and the citizens who stopped to help.
In the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, security operations often turn into humanitarian missions. Tucson Sector currently employs more than 275 agents trained as EMTs; 22 of whom are licensed paramedics.
