Ever wonder what a gas station blowing up looks like?

I often hear this irrational fear of tankers. Do people realize how hard of a hit a tank can take without rupturing? Trust me if you hit something hard enough to rupture it you are going to be screwed no matter what you're hauling. Like Duke said, most of the famous fuel tanker burn ups in history were caused by the fuel in the trucks own tanks which everyone has. The fire just spread to the load, live or die that line had been crossed a long time before the load went up. I'll haul anything that's legal, I don't care how bad it is, if I die pulling it I probably would have died pulling anything else too.

 

Third vehicles (white truck) driver "maybe I'll slow down, almost hit this right turn outer lane concrete barrier, and turn right instead."

 

There are some rocket fuels and oxidizers that can ignite in their vapor form, just from the friction of them rubbing the nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere. Aerozine 50, specifically hydrazine in Aerozine is unbelievably volatile, it's counterpart UDMH is no bed of daises either.

Anyone ever hear of Damascus Arkansas? Home to a lovely crater in the ground where a Titan 2 missile silo used to be. Used to be. It exploded after a fuel leak sprung up during an oxidizer recycle, a tech dropped a wrench from a platform a few dozen feet about a fuel tank. Long story short, the missile collapsed after it lost pressure in its fuel tank and the whole facility looked like a crater on the moon afterwards. Got a lot of people sick, killed one almost immediately and a score more over the past 30ish years due to the exposure to those chemicals.


Whenever you have any carbon and hydrogen rich aerosol/vapor suspended in an oxidizer, even just atmospheric oxygen- it rarely ends well. Toss in a multitude of ignition rich sources, like a roadside?

Well, you've seen the detonation of an impromptu fuel air bomb in Russia, at any rate.

 

Using rocket fuel as an example is stretching it by any means. The trucks do not haul a fuel with an oxidizer mixed in. Even if they do there's more safety precautions than normal. For sure that Broken Arrow changed the procedures for working on the missiles and IIRC only 1 technician was killed. plus liquid propelled missiles are old and outdated.

There's a lot of safety precautions engineered into tankers. For gasoline I know of two that are large and nobody is really aware of. For 1 the tanks are either vapor rich or product rich. That removes the air so no fires can happen. Of course if you introduce air then you have a rapid burning fire. Take a close look at a gasoline tanker fire. You'll see where the tank was ripped open to let air in. 2nd the designed of the tank itself reduces the tank from rupturing. Look at the tank and you'll see an oval shape tank just like an egg. You ever try to break an egg by crushing the ends? I was very happy to see an industry take the extra time for my safety. Sure I know it's for their product and truck but the driver is important too, at my company and many others.