Weekly Flush: Head-On Crash With Pumper Truck Kills Four People

Also in this week's septic-related news, a congresswoman from Alabama calls attention to the onsite wastewater needs of rural areas of the nation; and a man accidentally pumps out his septic tank instead of his frog pond

Weekly Flush: Head-On Crash With Pumper Truck Kills Four People

Some sad news came out of York County, Pennsylvania, April 30, as it was reported that a head-on collision between a utility truck and a septic pumper claimed the lives of four men.

The four individuals were killed on impact and all were in the utility vehicle. The 37-year-old male driver of the pumper truck was extricated and flown to York Hospital in a medical helicopter. As of Wednesday, he was in stable condition, according to a lieutenant from the Northern York County Regional Police Department.

The crash took place on Route 30 near Pine Road and Mary Street in the township of Paradise. According to a press release from the Northern York County Regional Police Department, the utility truck was heading westbound on Route 30 when it crossed through the center turn lane and into the eastbound side of the road, colliding with the pumper truck.


In other news, Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama recently wrote an essay bringing attention to the dire sanitation situation in her state’s Black Belt region. Her call for federal action comes on the heels of a recent visit by a United Nations official who declared he hadn’t seen such a level of poverty in a first-world country before. 

Sewell is introducing a bill in Congress that could allow a federal water well program to support the installation of onsite wastewater systems in areas where there has historically been a lack of resources or access to municipal wastewater systems. “I have met with stakeholders, from public health officials to homeowners to engineers, and I believe their voices and their action are critical to addressing the wastewater crisis in rural America,” wrote Sewell.


In the last weekend of April, officials from the health department and Michigan State Police got involved after it was reported a septic tank was spilling over in Selma, Michigan.

How did it happen, you might ask? A man’s wife asked him to pump out their frog pond, and during an apparent diabetic episode, the man instead pumped out their septic tank. Most of the waste caught in a ditch near the house, but some flowed over the street, causing a temporary road closure.



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