SALLISAW, Okla. — They said they were stranded in the middle of a construction zone as cars and tractor-trailers sped by.
“I paid $75 which got me 200 yards,” said traveler Todd Quick.
Quick was driving a large U-Haul truck and moving his belongings from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma to Florida.
“We did not travel 200 yards without our vehicles messing up and entering a highway in a construction zone," he said.
Quick said he filled up on gas at the Sallisaw Travel Center, Valero gas station. He said he hit I-40 eastbound and his U-Haul stalled along with others he had just witnessed pumping fuel at the same station.
“I sat there waiting for a tow truck, another person broke down and they got them towed off and then there was at least three other cars,” he said.
Quick said he and the other drivers asked the store employees if they knew there was a problem with the gas.
“They said they didn’t have anything to do with it. So, six hours of sitting on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck, more cars started to break down,” Quick said.
5NEWS went inside the gas station and asked employees to get us in touch with an owner. They took our information and said no one complained to them about bad gasoline and that they hadn’t heard of any problems with it.
A quick phone call to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, who regulates fuel quality across the state, said they received several complaints about bad quality gasoline on Thursday, (March 5) about the gas station.
A spokesperson with the commission said an investigator was sent out to the gas station and shut down the fuel pumps for two hours while they removed water from the lines.
They are now looking into whether the gas station will receive a violation notice or not.
Those with the commission also said the water likely got into the fuel lines because of construction work being done at the gas station. They said the owner of the gas station cleared the lines and the pumps are now operational.
The commission also said they monitor fuel quality at gas stations twice a year but it is not mandatory for a gas station owner to ever monitor their own fuel quality, but they do monitor their own fuel quantity.