Construction zone tanker tips over

Yup, a hard thing to clean up. We had a similar accident here in Maine. Fire department shut down the road for a bus with a leaking propane fuel tank.

 

"Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Brady Zaugg said the southbound lanes have been closed as a precaution. 'We're just trying to clear the area in case something were to happen,' he said."

Hmmm, a double tanker hauling butane. Is the 'something' in that 'in case something were to happen' maybe a fiery explosion that would wipe out everything for a half-mile or more? Gotta love the language authorities use to keep everyone calm.

 

I'm surprised we don't see more accidents through there.

It's like a perpetual construction zone with frequent lane shifts. they just fixed that stretch and now it need to be tore up again. Every few years?

 

Around here the gas truck guys are some of the worst drivers.....in the hammer
lane, speeding, weaving in and out, cutting drivers off...…. I guess they get paid
by the load.....that is one a former gas truck driver told me. Weekends especially
bad.....all the stations need their tanks refilled. More loads= more money.

Propane trucks don't seem quite as bad as the gas trucks but it is surprising to see
some of these guys with their flammable loads.

 

Oh no dear sir, let me disbase you of that notion that propane is not as bad as gasoline.

Propane tankers say 8000 pounds would inflict second to third degree burns line of sight for further than you can hope to run.

As a teen in a Baltimore race track they lit off 800 gallons of propane and it was a fire fighter convention day so the entire racetrack complex was covered in iron. Up in the grand stand from the burning pyre I took sunburn type radiation damage from it. Took almost two hours to kill that one. Especially after they brought the big cannon online feeding off 4 pumpers themselves chained to truck tankers.

What you do not ever want in terms of exploding fluid is basic crude oil. Those tanks have about 10% water in the bottom. If they burn hot enough, long enough to boil that water away while completely preheating and then pressurizing the oil itself you have what is a BLEVE. Those inflict 3rd degree burns at least half a mile.

And of couse the ultimate would be a 500 kt Satan 2 warhead over the US Capital. Break windows as far as about Philadelphia depending on refraction off the atmosphere and inflict second degree burns to a radius of 30 miles. 3rd and fatal burns at 6 to 30 miles. Anything inside 6 is essentially vapor. What would be left is the shadow burned into the ground next to you as you were converted to vapor.

 

Pretty sure he was referring to their driving habits not the differences in how they burn since the first part of his post was about the driving habits of gas haulers that are paid by the load.

 

When I was pulling flatbed we would be in SLC a few times a week and the joke always was if you lived between Ogden and Spanish Fork you could own a dump truck and always have a job.

 

I was referring to driving habits. Seems I see a lot more gasoline tankers
than propane tanks.

As for propane accidents...….it is certainly true that they can cause
a lot of problems. I think the propane companies are a little more picky
about the kind of drivers they hire than the gasoline delivery companies
are.

 

You jinxed yourself on that one!!