A car, seen here, and several tractor-trailers were involved in accidents Monday morning on Interstate 79.

When Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Department was dispatched to the scene of a tractor-trailer rollover at 8 a.m. Monday, little did they know that twice that many trucks would crash just a short while later.

Travis Wunsch, assistant fire chief, said his firefighters, plus state police and Portersville Volunteer Fire Department, responded early Monday morning to the southbound lane of Interstate 79 in Worth Township near mile marker 101.

There, they found a tractor-trailer driver entrapped, but uninjured, in the cab of his truck, which was resting on its side 30 feet down over an embankment.

The truck had hit an occupied, disabled vehicle sitting along the interstate. The occupant of the car was not injured.

While firefighters worked to free the truck driver and remove the huge vehicle from the embankment, they received another call at 9:42 a.m. to respond to a crash involving two tractor-trailers at the 103 mile marker in the same southbound lane of I-79.

Wunsch said one truck rear-ended the other at that scene in an attempt to stop for the traffic backup caused by the initial accident.

Firefighters soon discovered diesel fuel and oil leaking from the engine of one truck.

“About 100 gallons of diesel and 13 gallons of oil leaked from the tractor,” Wunsch said.

The refrigerated box trailer on that truck was not compromised in the accident, he said, but the truck that was rear-ended showed damage.

Firefighters requested Butler County Hazardous Materials Team 100 respond to the scene to safely manage the leaking fuel and oil, which firefighters had contained to prevent the liquids from spreading.

Wunsch said a contractor was called by the HazMat team to clean up the spills.

In addition, two people were taken by ambulance to Grove City Medical Center with minor injuries as a result of the second crash.

“Please be alert to signage and pay attention at all times for traffic to suddenly back up,” Wunsch advised.

Having finished their work at the first wreck, crews cleared the scene of the second accident at 1 p.m., Wunsch said.

It was not immediately known whether any of the drivers were cited by troopers.