The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

January 9, 2012

Couple still dealing with sticky situation

By Joy Leiker Herald Staff Writer

SHARON — Don and Toni McCamant still haven’t recovered from Thanksgiving.

But it’s not a case of too much turkey in their tummies.

It’s the spray of sticky sealant stuck on their car that’s made this particular holiday an unforgettable one. And it’s hard to forget the fact it took them 26  1/2 hours to travel to Philadelphia.

The McCamants of Sharon are among 1,000-plus claimants whose cars were damaged by a 40-mile tar slick on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Unaware that a tanker was leaking black roofing sealant onto the highway, the McCamants and hundreds of others drove through the sticky goo on Nov. 22.

Photos show black blobs splattered across the sides, hood and roof of his gray car. Like so many well-circulated photos from that rainy night, the McCamants’ tires look like they had melted into the pavement.

And today,monday 48 days later, McCamant, a Sharpsville dentist, still is waiting for his Volvo S80 to come back from the repair shop. He has high hopes that a semi truck cleaning company in McKees Rocks is able to find, and remove every speck of sealant so his car can get back on the road. New wheels, tires, struts are on the list.

Even though it’s taken a month-and-a-half to get to this point, waiting for the car hasn’t been the most frustrating part of all of this.

“Everybody involved has been good – except PennDOT. They’re culpable in this mess,” McCamant said. “They never closed down the highway. They let all the cars go down the highway (and) let them go through the mess.”

“You put all those people in danger. It’s raining. They have no traction on their tires. They sent police out to do damage reports. They’re doing their job,” McCamant said. “That nobody got killed is a miracle.”

Quickly after the accident PennDOT directed all phone calls and complaints from affected drivers to Travelers Indemnity Co., the trucking firm’s insurance company. Representatives there have logged the calls – the morning after McCamant said his was claim number 431. Days later, he was number 1,011.

McCamant’s insurance company opened its own claim, sent an independent adjuster to survey the damage and a week later cut him a check.

The irony of all this is the McCamants nearly missed the mess entirely. But because they had left their Sharon home a bit later than expected on that Tuesday before Thanksgiving, they stopped for dinner in Cranberry Township, Butler County. It was during the 20-or-so minutes they stopped to eat that the tanker started leaking on the turnpike.

“If I hadn’t stopped for that burger we would have been ahead of it,” McCamant said, joking that he’s now calling himself “Mister Lucky.”

Said McCamant: “Hopefully by the time it gets settled I’ll still be alive.”

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