CLEARWATER -- Traffic in north Pinellas County was paralyzed for eight hours Wednesday when a tanker truck overturned at Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard and U.S. 19, forcing several agencies to contain a diesel spill.

No one was seriously injured but thousands of commuters were late for work and school as traffic backed up from Palm Harbor to St. Petersburg during the morning rush hour. As a precaution, police shut down U.S. 19 and Gulf-to-Bay for a mile in each direction.

The accident involved a Mack truck traveling from the Port of Tampa and carrying 8,000 gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel. The truck tipped onto its left side at 6:37 a.m. while turning right from westbound Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard onto northbound U.S. 19.

About 600 gallons of diesel leaked into a stormwater drain, traveling a half-mile south to the Japanese Gardens mobile home park and emptying into a creek which runs into Tampa Bay, officials said.

Fearing a cigarette flicked out a car window could cause an explosion, Clearwater firefighters blocked the streets.

Officials said no fuel leaked into the bay.

Several restaurants nearby closed, but only a Perkins Family Restaurant at 2626 Gulf-to-Bay was evacuated.

"I was just getting to work and I saw the police . . . in back of me," the restaurant's manager, Tom Weinzetl, said. "I went in and the police said for everybody to get out, that there were thousands of gallons of fuel on the road next to my restaurant. They said, 'You could burn up in here.' "

Police speculated the fuel inside the tanker shifted, causing the rig to overturn. Police questioned and released the driver without writing a ticket. He was identified as William Schultz, 57, of Tampa.

"He says he wasn't speeding, so we take that at face value," said police Sgt. Jim Quinlan.

Traffic on U.S. 19 was restored by 2:30 p.m. Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard was reopened by 4 p.m. The northbound ramp, however, will remain closed until the Florida Department of Transportation fixes the damage.

The truck had five fuel compartments, said Dale Abernathy, a manager at the Tampa office of Florida Rock and Tank, the Jacksonville company that owns the truck.

Abernathy said the truck was full and headed for a gas station on Sunset Point Road. The first compartment carried 3,000 gallons of diesel while the others contained up to 1,600 gallons of unleaded gasoline.

The driver is sore but otherwise uninjured, Abernathy said. The company plans to conduct an investigation. Another of the company's trucks was involved in a fiery accident in Orlando last weekend near an Interstate 4 ramp.

-- Times researcher Catherine Wos and Times staff writer Leon Tucker contributed to this report. Adrienne Samuels can be reached at 445-4157 or samuels@sptimes.com.

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