LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – The truck crash and subsequent lithium battery fire on Tuesday are like an incident that happened on I-15 over the summer. 

That crash closed the freeway for 44 hours, stranding drivers. Paul Enos, the CEO of Nevada Trucking Association said despite the dangers of lithium, that’s not all that’s being hauled across the roadways.

“There are thousands of truckloads and trainloads of hazardous chemicals that honestly are more hazardous than lithium,” he said. “There are a number of other commodities that I would hate to have, hate to be in a truck wreck and have to deal with the aftermath and the dangerous situation than lithium batteries.”
 
Lithium was the issue on July 26 when a truck flipped on its side on the I-15 near Baker in San Bernardino County.

Representative Dina Titus who is running for re-election, said she wants to strengthen federal regulations on the transport of lithium batteries. She issued this statement after Tuesday’s crash:
 
“Today’s accident and fire on U.S. 95 involving a truck carrying lithium-ion batteries underscores the urgency for Congress to act on the ‘Thermal Runaway Reduction Act’, legislation I introduced last week in response to a similar accident on Interstate 15 in July. Without better regulation of the transport of these batteries, it is only a matter of time before these accidents and resulting fires take human lives. Furthermore, the resulting road closures and the amount of water needed to extinguish these fires have significant impacts on resources in our region. Congress needs to act quickly to enact live-saving regulations.” 
 
The Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration regulates lithium transport. According to those regulations, drivers do receive training on transport and how to communicate potential problems to first responders and the public.
 
A necessary precaution as Nevada moves forward with lithium mining in the northern part of the state. And, lithium, as Enos said, is everywhere.

“You have lithium batteries that, you know, are used as backup generators for hospitals. You have lithium batteries in vehicles. You have a lithium battery in this phone,” Enos said.