The driver of a tanker truck that flipped on its side at 3:12 a.m. Friday and drained more than 7,000 gallons of diesel fuel might have been reaching for something, possibly a cell phone, at the time, officials said.

The driver was taken to St. Catherine’s Medical Center with minor hand injuries, and the vehicle was removed about 8:30 a.m. from the 2500 block of Green Bay Road (Highway 31).

The road was closed between 18th Street (Highway L) and Washington Road (Highway S) until about 4:30 p.m. Friday, when two lanes in each direction reopened.

The fuel had been removed from the road by mid-morning, but cleanup of nearby tainted dirt in farm fields and wetlands could take two to four weeks. One lane was to remain closed because of large equipment needed to remove the dirt as well as some of the fuel that covered a retention pond in the 2900 block of Green Bay Road. Veolia Environmental Services was using a truck vacuum at the pond to remove the fuel, which was floating on the surface.

Investigators also found fuel as far west as Highway EA/72nd Avenue.

No homes were evacuated. Residents were not in danger, said Somers Fire Department President Pete Wicklund.

The truck driver, Reginald Bowman, works for A.D. Conner Co. haulers, Frankfort, Ill. He was southbound when the vehicle ran up the west curb, veered across three lanes and struck the median, where it landed on its passenger side.

Sheriff Sgt. Gil Benn said there were indications he might have been reaching for a cell phone.

County Division of Emergency Management Director Ben Schliesman said at least three dump truck loads of sand had been brought to the scene to soak up the fuel as of 9 a.m. and more were expected.

Schliesman said Veolia would submit its cleanup bill to the hauling company and the county would submit a bill on behalf of all the public agencies involved, possibly next week.

Veolia will use equipment to suck up fuel in the sewer, then flush the sewer with hot water and capture remaining fuel that emerges at a culvert.

Jennifer Niemeyer, DNR law enforcement supervisor, said there will be an environmental impact.

“Seven thousand gallons is a huge amount,” she said. “We’re just not sure of the impact yet.”

The main concern was preventing the liquid from reaching the Pike River, which flows into Lake Michigan, she said.

The fuel went along a drain tile west in farm fields toward a branch of the river near Highway EA, she said. The branch meets the river at Petrifying Springs Park.

Tainting the river is worrisome because of a possible kill-off of trout, which are spawning now, she said.

Sewers kept much of the fuel from entering the ground so there was less worry about contamination of nearby water wells, she said.

Niemeyer said recent rain, snow melt and water runoff combined to carry the fuel to Highway EA.

“If we had had a dry spell, it could have been a different story,” she said. “But with water running through the drain tile, it’s going to carry the product.

“There could have been better times that this could have happened, but this was probably one of the worst.”