Gas station's diesel mistake damages cars

COMMERCE CITY - Customers paying for unleaded gas got diesel instead and the repair bills were just down the road.

The mix-up, at the Conoco station at Highway 2 and East 64th Avenue in Commerce City, is being blamed on an inexperienced supply truck driver.

Customers complained vehicles performed sluggishly at first and then wouldn't start later.

"It wasn't until I got to higher speeds on the expressway that I noticed some problems," said Angie Morrison of Boulder.

Her SUV failed to start a few hours after filling up at the station.

Morrison's repair bill came to nearly $350. She was incredulous when the mechanic told her she had a gas tank full of diesel.

"I checked my receipt and it says I purchased Unleaded Plus, which is what I thought I had purchased," Morrison said.

When Azalea Leon's mechanic told her that her vehicle wouldn't start because it was trying to run on diesel, she thought she'd made a mistake.

"I was starting to think it was my fault," said Leon, who paid more than $900 for repairs.

Employees at the Conoco station told her the station couldn't possibly be responsible for the diesel in her tank.

"They're all like, 'No, there's no physical way that would happen. That wouldn't happen. It's not going to happen. It's just gas,'" said Leon. "They just didn't care."

After visits to the station by a 9NEWS reporter and a state inspector from the Division of Oil and Public Safety, the station's owner acknowledged the problem.

"It was a mistake and it needs to be taken care of and it will be," said Jeff Smith, operations division manager for California-based Pacific Convenience.

Brightly-colored caps indicate where different blends of fuel should be added to underground tanks. A large sign notes which colors represent which blends. An inexperienced trucker apparently filled the wrong tanks, said Smith.

Smith said Petroleum Chemical Transport, the trucking company that supplied the gasoline, will reimburse customer claims. Customers should visit the gas station to fill out a claim form.

The problem appears to be confined to the station's Unleaded Plus and diesel tanks.

The diesel pumps have been shut off by state inspectors pending additional testing.

A message left for a Petroleum Chemical Transport spokesperson at the end of the workday was not immediately returned.

The director of the state's Division of Oil and Public Safety, Mehesh Albuquerque, said mix-ups between diesel and unleaded gas happen sporadically.

Albuquerque says five to 10 such incidents happen statewide annually.

Because there was no possible profit motive involved and it appeared to be a mistake, the gas station will not be fined, said Albuquerque.

Albuquerque says state inspectors rely on customer complaints about bad batches of gas or more pronounced errors like the diesel fuel swap.

He encouraged drivers to call 303-866-4967 to report problems as soon as they are noticed, in order to allow an inspector to sample the remaining gas at the station in question.

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