Whats the most dangerous material you've been loaded with ?

Sulfuric acid always made me uneasy, ammonium nitrate in a bulk tanker, an uneven flatbed load of trim board, tarped. What really made me nervous was loading pavement dressing conditioner at 375 degrees, then added 500 gallons of xylene as a solvent. Placarded 3256 class 3 flammable HOT

 

Local cartage companies that never check of fix anything.

 

My wife, her mother, and her five sisters. San Francisco to Portland Oregon and back for a funeral. Never again.

 

46000 lbs. of 4.2 Spontaneously Combustible Totes

 

A prison bus full of serial killers.

 

From the other side of the desk I've seen a few nasty items.

Chemical Leaman days @ DuPont fuming acids; Sulfur TriOxide, Oleum 65, Chlorosulfonic Acid.

We had one SO3 trailer rolled over by Newark airport on the turnpike, wind blowing toward Manhatten and drainage toward the airport, EPA estimated 40,000# would make a cloud 10 miles long and 4 miles wide and we shut the turnpike down for over 8 hours and didn't spill a drop.

Also Dimethyl Sulfate one that you couldn't smell, looked like water, was skin absorbable and the fumes turned to oleum in the moisture of your lungs.

Delivering driver wore a space helment connected to bottles of breathing air attached to the trailer.

That one got a lot of forced layovers as we couldn't unload in ANY form of participation like snow flurries, etc. because it would hide any leaks.

Had a driver from another Matlack terminal come in with a small vapor exposure to Isocyanate [a cousin of the material tha killed all those people in Bopal, India] and I was directed to take him to Robert Wood Johnson hospital.

The shipper called ahead and failed to mention that there wasn't any physical exposure/contamination.

We strolled into the ER from the Hospital Lobby only to see Middlesex County Haz Mat setting up a portable De-con unit at the ambuance entrance to the ER...like we would be stupid enough to drive a contaminated guy in our personal car.....

Toxic isocyanate is used to make the foam in your truck seats.

 

Liquid asphalt that was loaded at a temperature of 500F….

you could feel the heat coming off the hose while unloading