Police: Sunrise Highway in Merrick reopens after crash, delays possible

All lanes of the Sunrise Highway in Merrick have reopened after a tanker truck crash early Monday closed the roadway, but motorist could still face delays as crews repair downed power lines, police said.

The crash, believed to involve just the tanker truck, was reported at 5:03 a.m., according to Nassau police.

Afterward, police shutdown Sunrise Highway at Lansdowne Avenue, just east of the Meadowbrook and Babylon Turnpike, due to downed power lines and also fuel spillage, police said earlier Monday.

The PSEG Long Island outage map indicated an earlier minor power outage in the area had been resolved. PSEG said the outage caused by those downed power lines affected fewer than 10 customers.

Police said it was not immediately clear if there had been injuries in the accident.

The crash is the second involving a fuel tanker on Sunrise Highway in two weeks, following one involving an overturned tanker that erupted in a fireball in Rockville Centre on Feb. 16.

That crash destroyed a building and damaged others in an intense fire sparked when the tanker overturned, spilling about 9,200 gallons of gasoline onto the roadway, police said.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”