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Clean-up still underway for tar, diesel spill on Hwy. 401 in Kingston

Traffic is still backed up in the eastbound lanes of Highway 401 while officials cleanup a tar spill east of Kingston.

OPP say environmental officials are still working to clean up a spill on Highway 401 after a tanker carrying tar crashed early Thursday morning.

Police say they were called to Highway 401 in Kingston at around 5 a.m. Thursday morning for the crash.

The tanker’s fuel spilled, along with the tar it was carrying, in Collins Creek, next to the highway.

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Ministry of Environment officials said that luckily, the flow of the creek was slow, so the spill was contained near the area of the crash, instead of spreading into the connected wetland.

The eastbound lanes of the highway were closed all day Thursday between County Road 6 and Gardiners Road, with one lane opened Thursday night.

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As of 10 a.m. Friday, one lane is still closed for clean-up efforts. OPP say they expect the second lane to reopen later Friday and for traffic to be back to normal for the weekend.

As of Friday morning, traffic is considerably slowed in the eastbound lanes due to the bottleneck caused by the closed lanes.

On Thursday, OPP said they expected to lay charges following the incident, but as of Friday morning, no charges have been announced. The driver of the tanker escaped with only minor injuries, despite the tanker running off the road and tipping.

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