Troopers are investigating a crash involving an overturned tanker that has caused a fuel spill on Florida’s Turnpike near Bird Road.
Florida Highway Patrol
An overturned tanker spilling fuel shut down a section of Florida’s Turnpike in both directions near Bird Road on Friday morning.
The tanker overturned in a crash with three other vehicles around 6:15 a.m., according to the Florida Highway Patrol. As of 9 a.m., the turnpike’s northbound and southbound lanes between Kendall Drive and Bird Road remain closed for the investigation and cleanup.
The driver of the tanker was taken to Kendall Regional Medical Center as a trauma alert.
Total Traffic Miami photos show the tanker on its side in the turnpike’s southbound lanes, about one mile south of Bird Road. Traffic cameras during Friday’s morning rush hour showed crews directing drivers to back up and turn around to get off the turnpike.
An overturned fuel tanker with a fuel spill has shut down a section of Florida’s Turnpike in both directions near Bird Road during Friday’s morning rush hour. Florida Department of Transportation Traffic Cameras
Drivers are asked to avoid the area and seek alternate routes.
Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health’s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald’s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow. Support my work with a digital subscription
