Two additional truck accidents in the Upper Ohio Valley Friday brought the total number of natural gas industry crashes to five last week.

Friday afternoon, a truck carrying water for a drilling site rolled off Huff Ridge Road in Wetzel County–the third truck accident for that county in as many days.

Around the same time, a truck carrying chemicals to a drilling site in Jefferson County crashed on Ohio 43 near Amsterdam, leading officials to deploy a hazardous materials unit to investigate the resulting leakage.

Neither accident led to serious injuries, authorities reported, but the trend of having so many natural gas-related accidents in such a short amount of time troubles Wetzel County Sheriff James Hoskins. “It just seems like bad luck,” he said. “I don’t know whether this is just carelessness or if there is another problem.”

Hoskins said the Friday Wetzel County accident involved a water truck that overturned and rolled about 70 feet down an embankment. The West Virginia Division of Highways and the Public Service Commission of West Virginia also investigated the matter.

Hoskins said the truck was owned by New Martinsville-based Litman Excavating. A Litman employee would only confirm the company owned the truck and declined to comment further.

Meanwhile, a Thursday Wetzel County accident involved a truck hauling drilling waste that rolled about 100 feet down an embankment on Blake Ridge Road, smashing the truck’s cab. Hoskins described the driver as “very fortunate,” noting the driver had been transported to a local hospital for relatively minor injuries.

Hoskins investigated the Thursday crash at the same time he was working with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and Division of Highways to determine what substance one of the natural gas drillers sprayed onto American Ridge Road on Wednesday, when a truck used for dumping was traveling on American Ridge Road about eight miles east of New Martinsville rolled off the road, resulting in what Hoskins described as minor injuries for both the driver and passenger, who were sent to a local hospital.

“This is part of what we have to deal with out here with all the drilling,” Hoskins said, noting the two occupants of the truck driving on American Ridge Road had been released from a local hospital.

These crashes followed a fatal truck accident in Marshall County on Aug. 8.

Hoskins, along with Division of Highways District 6 Maintenance Engineer Lloyd Adams, said Stone Energy Corp. sprayed a chemical known as Durasoil on American Ridge Road on Wednesday. Several residents in the area complained about the substance, noting it was making the road slick. Hoskins, however, said the Wednesday truck accident was not related to the Durasoil, noting a portion of the roadway that had fallen in was a contributing factor.

Stone Energy officials could not be reached for comment Thursday.

“It’s a product I wish I could afford,” Adams said of the substance Stone Energy applied. “We want them to pave the road.”

Adams said one of his workers went to the site to sample the liquid to make sure it was Durasoil late Thursday.

Kathy Cosco, spokeswoman for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and Office of Oil and Gas, said her agency “does not tell them what to use or approve what they use.”

“Typically, if the Office of Oil and Gas receives a complaint from residents about dust, we will recommend to the company that they spray water on the road to suppress the dust,” she said.

According to the product’s Web site, Durasoil is “human, animal, marine life and vegetation safe.”

“From intense-use military tank trails to gravel driveways, Durasoil is actively solving dust control challenges throughout the world’s industrial, military and commercial markets,” the Web site notes.

(Compiled from various reports by Casey Junkins for the Wetzel Chronicle.)