James Wells was getting supplies Tuesday morning for upcoming jobs for his paint business when he came around the bend on Drakes Creek Road in Penn Forest Township and saw power lines down.

He saw heating oil running down the road.

Then he spotted the overturned R.F. Ohl tanker off the road. It appeared that the tanker turned over and slid into the tree, bringing the lines down on to the road.

That was shortly after 9 a.m. He didn’t believe what he saw so he quickly snapped a photo.

“I was really nervous because of the power lines and the fuel running out,” Wells said. “I knew I had to keep trying to reach the driver.”

He called 9-1-1 and the dispatcher asked if he could talk to the driver to see if he was OK.

“At first I was afraid but I thought ‘I have to help the guy,’?” Wells said.

The 9-1-1 dispatcher wanted to know as much about the driver as possible so he could properly dispatch help.

“The fuel wasn’t the scary part. It was the power lines,” Wells said. “The driver was smart enough to turn off the truck.”

Wells was the only one on scene at that point.

After a bit, the stunned driver responded but said he couldn’t get out because the tanker was on its side and the door was heavy.

Finally, Wells said adrenaline kicked in and the driver thrust open the door and got out. He stayed on the truck though because he told EMTs he felt safe there.

“He sat on top of the truck sideways. He was really upset,” Wells said.

The EMTs told him to come out of the truck and head to the woods rather than toward the power lines.

The owner of Wells Paint, he travels these roads all the time, and has seen his share of crashes, but this was first with downed wires and fuel “pouring out.” He said he was shook up most of the day.

After the EMTs arrived, a wrecker came and then the fire department. “Everyone arrived quickly,” he said.

The fire department guided Wells away from the scene and he went to Allentown to pick up supplies.

“Thankfully he was OK,” said Steve Ohl, owner of R. F. Ohl in Lehighton.

“We don’t know what exactly happened” prior to the crash, Ohl said Wednesday. “We have a video of it and we have GPS tracking that shows that the driver wasn’t speeding.”

The video catches footage of the truck beginning to tilt at some point as it approaches a curve in the road.

“We are trying to find out if it is mechanical failure or liquid that the truck was carrying caused it to tilt,” Ohl said.

A mechanical investigation is underway, he said.

“We are glad that the driver wasn’t hurt, and that nobody else was hurt,” Ohl said.

Electricity was knocked out to some PPL Utilities customers.

As for the spilled heating oil, he believes there will be minimal impact to the environment. Rapid response and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection are remediating the spill.

Ohl said the future of the truck is in question but business won’t be impacted.

“There are always things that can happen when a truck lays on its side for some time,” he said.

A mechanic will look at the truck for stress to the frame or other problems.

The company has been in business for 39 years, and Ohl said it is the first time that a truck has overturned.

Mark Nalesnik, director of the Carbon County Emergency Management Agency, was one of the first on the scene.

From his estimates, he said that approximately 800 gallons of home heating oil had spilled from the truck.

He phoned the DEP.

“They responded to the scene and will continue to monitor the clean-up process,” he said.

Despite early reports that residents within a 1,000-feet radius of the road would have to evacuate, Nalesnick said an evacuation was not needed. Roads were closed while cleanup occurred. Penn Forest and Lake Harmony fire companies responded.

The crash site along Drakes Creek Road, he said, is surrounded by Pennsylvania State Game Lands No. 141 on both sides.

In addition to Carbon EMA, Nalesnik commended the response from multiple area fire departments.