Paint spill on Route 1 snarls traffic in Bath

BATH – Michael Giberson, a driver for a Vermont paint company, will remember Tuesday as the day his world turned yellow.

Giberson, 33, of Woolwich, was driving from Bath to Brunswick on U.S. Route 1 when he dropped a can of soda and lost control of his truck, Detective Jay Manhardt of the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Department said.

When Giberson tried to retrieve the can, the truck hit a guardrail, causing a 55-gallon drum of yellow pavement paint used for road markings to fall off the truck bed and splatter onto the road – and over Giberson’s face.

Giberson, who drives for L&D Safety Markings of Barre, Vt., was not injured in the accident that snarled traffic for almost three hours.

The state Department of Environmental Protection cleaned a small diesel spill from the truck. Road crews worked on the yellow splotch, pouring sand over the acrylic waterborne resin paint.