Amazon truck driver charged after allegedly dumping fuel Into Exmore ditch, officials say

Pictured: a screenshot of footage of the truck taken in Exmore Sunday.

By Linda Cicoira

The driver of a truck that was pulling an Amazon Prime trailer through Exmore last Sunday allegedly put the wrong type of gas in his tank and then dumped dozens of gallons of fuel into a ditch along Lankford Highway.

Irina Calos of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality said Wednesday that her agency and the Virginia Department of Emergency Management were notified of the dumping incident at about 9:15 a.m. on May 24.

The driver, who has not been publicly identified by authorities, had apparently put regular gasoline in the diesel tank after stopping at the nearby Royal Farms for fuel. He drove a little farther north, just past the Auto Zone store, where he stopped the truck and allegedly decided to dump between 30 and 40 gallons of fuel from one of the tractor’s saddle tanks. The fuel was worth nearly $180.

When police arrived, they ordered the driver to stop dumping the fuel, Calos said.

“The local fire department called the Eastern Shore HAZMAT team to assist with the response, and the local emergency services coordinator contacted VDEM and DEQ.”

“Trucking company J K Drive LLC has hired a … contractor to conduct the cleanup and soil remediation,” she added. The driver was charged with two misdemeanor counts of illegal dumping.