I-86 Accident Impacts Local Manufacturer
By Robert Rizzuto rrizzuto@post-journal.comPOLAND - An early morning accident on Interstate 86 shut down the westbound lanes in the town of Poland for more than two hours Friday and delayed the arrival of a shipment to a local manufacturer.
Becker Desire, 31 of Elizabeth, N.J., fell asleep at the week of the tractor-trailer he was operating at around 4:50 a.m., causing the truck to swerve into a guard rail and overturn, according to a Chautauqua County Sheriff's Department report.
The kicker for Hopes Windows Inc. is that the trailer was carrying about $50,000 worth of steel window sections, according to John D. Fafinski, Hopes Windows vice president.
''It's still strewn all over the highway up there,'' he said. ''It's a total loss, and the first time this has ever happened in my 30 years here at Hope's.''
Fafinski said that the company does keep a supplementary inventory of steel on hand just in case something happens with the supply chain, but was unsure if the mishap would have an effect on operations.
''I'm not sure yet if it will impact production,'' he said. ''The shipment was slated to re-supply our (supplementary) inventory.''
Desire, the driver of the truck, was taken to WCA Hospital and treated for minor injuries. He was also charged with improper lane usage and cited for carrying no log book.
The Chautauqua County HAZMAT team arrived to support the Kennedy Volunteer Fire Department with clean-up of a small amount of gas and oil spread around the road.
Fafinski said that although the steel is unusable for the company's operations at this point, another industry stands to profit from ithe materials.
''It was steel fresh from the mill in New Jersey,'' he said,'' But, now it's going to make some scrapyard really happy.''
