NEW YORK (AP) – A tanker truck carrying thousands of gallons of gasoline overturned on a major highway on Monday and caught fire, burning down an overpass and spewing thick black smoke that could be seen for miles.

The driver, who suffered minor injuries, was able to walk away from the crash, said Jim Tuller, chief of the police department’s Queens North Bureau Command.

“The driver appeared to lose control, and the truck flipped over,” Tuller said.

No one else was hurt.

The Mobil truck was carrying 8,000 gallons of gasoline when it overturned just before noon near the Roosevelt Avenue exit of the six-lane Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in Queens, said Michael Lee, a director at the city’s Office of Emergency Management. No other vehicles were involved.

The accident occurred beneath a temporary overpass, which was burned and collapsed onto the truck, Lee said.

“The heat of the fire caused the beams to come down,” he said.

The fire was extinguished by Monday evening but started again around 9 p.m., when sparks from a cleanup worker’s torch ignited a pool of water and gasoline.

The No. 7 subway line, which runs on elevated tracks just beyond the overpass, was shut down in both directions between Queensboro Plaza and Willets Point, first for several hours because of concern that sparks from subway tracks could land on the spill and then briefly because of the reignited fire.

Transportation workers were trying to get the roadway cleared by Tuesday’s morning rush.

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