Sodium hydroxide related fatality

Caustic by nature, reacts to water, will cause chemical burns to skin and eyes. refered to as caustic soda or lye.

 

per the local news;

driver told his co that the tank had a leak.

might have something to do with it?

 

WoW!

Skin trailer, wonder if the were using air to push it off, maybe the void vent was plugged and it blew # 6 away if was leaking into the void...

Doesn't look like a lot of liquid spilled, left to long building pressure -or- blew when it went MT?

I never saw one split like this.

 

Just guessing, appears to be a multi compartment. Maybe had a leak between the double bulkheads and he had an acid in the other compartment?

 

Such a chemical reaction would have fractured both #5 and #4.

This looks like the force separated the void and pushed #5 away from the rest of the barrel.

The void space could have been compromised enough that unloading pressure pushed into that tiny space and split the last compartment away.

Matlack always made sure that the void section drains, in between the double bulkheads, were open so any leaks would drip out but many are not maintained, and this one may have been plugged, either manually or through a buildup of crud and corrosion.