https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/FG1LGKieTxY?autoplay=1&vq=480&rel=0
The above link is a reminder of the hazards we face daily as we travel the highways. This is a welding supply truck involved in an accident on a busy highway. The dozens of bottles of gas start to become VERY entertaining about one minute into the clip. By about 2:30, all heck is breaking lose. It is funny to watch the cop decide to back up after a rocketing gas bottle comes dancing along. That's at about 3:30 of the 3:50 clip. Notice the Lookie Lou's decide to move on as things get more exciting.
It could happen to any one of us, any day of the week.
There was also the one yesterday about the driver who was updating her Facebook page from her phone......when she crossed the median and had a head on. She was killed but the other driver is okay. Really dangerous out there. I am always aware this time in the street could be my last.
Have you ever noticed all of the pieces of retread lying next to the shoulder? Probably not as much in the heartland; but out here, it's about every 50 feet.
One of my biggest fears is getting slapped upside the head by one of those suckers flying off of that semi, barreling down the road....
Stay safe my friends; as safe as possible.
Radar
In the early '70s I worked in a shop that rebuilt radial aircraft engines. Had a co-worker break a new set of gauges out of the box for an oxyacetylene torch. He made himself a good nominee for the Darwin Awards by greasing the dry brass bottle fittings...he was the only fatality.
I was around 100' away with two sheet metal walls between us. The first wall was destroyed by the blast. The second was bowed out about ten feet. It completely destroyed a red iron frame shop building. I picked myself up and ran toward daylight.
After that we had to have some serious safety training. We saw numerous films about what can happen to bottled gas when mishandled. Those things can become deadly missiles, as the film shows. It doesn't appear as though anyone was injured.
Notice the first person that "de-assed" the perimeter was the driver. I bet he had a good idea the 16 oz. fire extinguisher screwed to the side of the truck wasn't going to help things.
Some things you can't control
This happened Monday morning during rush hour. Thousands of people live in Volusia County and commute to Orlando on Interstate 4. It was the worst accident in quite a while. Sadly a fatality occured. 🙁
http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/1-killed-crash-involving-dump-truck-4-vehicles-i-4/nfjkz/
I've seen big strips of retread come off - it's impressive and scary.
Yes, they can severely injure or kill you, and totally at random.
Looks like some crap you would expect to hear about on the traffic reports here in the metro-Atlanta area. Seems like every day I hear about a mattress or some large appliance or some car fire (sometimes referred to as a car-b-que).
In the mid-90s I heard about some tanker full of turpentine hitting an overpass abutment and catch fire on the north side of I-285.
I moved away in 96 and a few years, maybe 4 or 5, had to return for a meeting and go under that overpass. You could still smell it after all those years.
Sure is horrendous.
Amazes me that small car didn't get torched.
Here (Australia) we have some scary gas explosions.
One few years back was a plumber who went to open his van and the whole thing just blew apart. He was killed, but there are times when the vehicle or building is demolished and they survive.
