The Chicago Trib wrote:
A 30,000-gallon truck filled with cooking oil overturned Thursday on Interstate Highway 55 near Romeoville, leaving an inch-thick coating of the slippery substance on the roadway and snarling traffic for more than 10 hours, police said.
Illinois State Police took about six hours to locate the truck's driver, who fled the scene after his rig apparently swerved into the median before rolling over, authorities said. The oil spilled onto the southbound lanes of the highway about 4:10 a.m.
[...]
Crews had to make three passes with a road scraper and spread pea gravel and sand, Odenthal said. A hazardous materials contractor remained at the scene for hours removing dirt from the median so local water supplies would not be contaminated.
Illinois State Police took about six hours to locate the truck's driver, who fled the scene after his rig apparently swerved into the median before rolling over, authorities said. The oil spilled onto the southbound lanes of the highway about 4:10 a.m.
[...]
Crews had to make three passes with a road scraper and spread pea gravel and sand, Odenthal said. A hazardous materials contractor remained at the scene for hours removing dirt from the median so local water supplies would not be contaminated.
Two things entered my mind upon hearing that he fled the scene. The first, which will mean nothing to you non-locals, is that this happened south of Weber Rd, before 126th Street. There's nothing there but fallow, snow covered fields and the occassional warehouse. I'm just picturing this yahoo running climbing those ratty barbed wire fences they put on the side of the road and bolting across the tundra to God knows where.
Secondly, what would compel you to run away? It's not as if the trucking company doesn't know who was driving the truck. It'll take them all of five minutes to give the police your name, address and whatever else. Someone's bound to notice your truck flipped over on the side of the highway and 30,000 gallons of vegetable oil coating the road. In other words, this isn't exactly something you're going to nonchalantly walk away from, whistling.
Idiots.