Well, Mike.   I don't know how it is in the Peoples Republic of Illinois, but here in KS spreading manure is still a farm operation, and there is no age requirement to drive a farm tractor on roads.   I was hauling hay on public roads with a tractor when I was younger then 12, and if we had been using grain carts then, I would have likely been running those, too.   I guess I've been privileged to live in a family where ability means more then BS.  I have a feeling Les has, also. 

When reading something like this, I tend to disregard the spin that someone tries to put on it, and simply read the facts.  The facts are that the tanker ran off the road.  I don't have any reason to believe the poster's claims of how the accident happened, because it is obvious to me from his language that he has some sort of axe to grind with the guys involved.  If the operators were in the process of recovering their own equipment, I do not see any good reason for anyone to disrupt that activity and involve a wrecker or anything else.  Sounds like the all-too-common case of   "I'm in charge, and nobody better do anything without me telling them too" which seems to run rampant in small-time emergency services people.  There's someone on scene with heavy equipment and they have the situation well under control, but since "I'm in charge" has showed up, he's gonna darn sure put a stop to that.  All hat an no cattle guys can get away with that in town, but out here in the sticks, fortunately we still tend to have people who have a clue.   Hazardous waste?   Get real.   It's manure, for pete's sake.  It lands on the ground when it comes out of the back of the cow or pig or chicken.  It's not going to hurt anything for it to lay on the ground for an hour or two while the tanker is righted, and then be cleaned up with a loader and hauled off.   I realize common sense  may be illegal there, but fortunately we still use it sometimes out here.