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The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) has confirmed that following two separate instances of acid spills in Trail, it has received thousands of auto insurance claims.
ICBC spokesperson Lindsay Wilkins said that auto claims related to the April 10 and May 23 sulphuric acid spills have exceeded 3,000 – but fewer have actually shown exposure to acid.
“These are complex claims that require extra time to process as each vehicle may have been exposed to varying degrees of sulphuric acid, affecting different parts and components of the vehicle,” Wilkins said in an email statement.
Wilkins added that a technical expert has been retained to assess the level of contamination of each vehicle, and that a team of 30 is dedicated to processing claims related to the spills.
Teck Resources, the provider of the acid, posted a notice on its website that the spills – one involving 220 litres and the other 70 litres – occurred along a 16km stretch of a commuter route through Trail.
The spills happened after Teck sold the acid to International Raw Materials; the buyer had contracted to move the corrosive substance by truck to two other locations in Trail.
In a phone interview with The Canadian Press, Trail Mayor Mike Martin said that the truck leaked the acid in a staggered fashion – the largest puddles of acid formed at intersections where the truck stopped and started.
“I’ve seen numbers in the range of 15 to 20,000 thousand vehicles per day that would be passing along that route in both directions,” the mayor said.
Among the automobiles damaged by the acid were two vehicles owned by the Kootenay Boundary Regional Fire Rescue; a brand new fire engine that cost about $800,000 and a command vehicle.
