Hi all,
Just came across the following link:
http://acidcow.com/pics/7245-fuel-truck-vs-train-in-nebraska-12-pics.html
I was just wondering what happened in this accident - does anyone have any information? Especially how a fuel tanker managed to get into the middle of a double-track BNSF mainline - there don’t seem to be any road crossings in the reverse-facing shots?
Thanks in advance,
tbdanny
I don’t know why it happened but I have a feeling that the crew needed some fresh shorts. The crew probably hit the floor screaming and praying that the tanker was empty. I can only imagine the crew’s reaction at seeing the tanker right next to the conductors window. Did the truck driver survive the crash and / or the train crew?
CC
You don’t know how far the truck was dragged. Trains don’t exactly stop “on a dime”.
Without knowing any of the specifics of the incident, the pictures make it appear that the tractor was struck, probably at a crossing, and then the tractor/trailer combination were drug to the eventual stopping point. A time consuming mess to clean up in any event.
Interesting that the tanker appears to have dragged along behind the tractor with brakes locked, as you can see ballast piled up in front of its tires.
Given the many incidents where an engine has hit a tank broadside and the resulting explosion has killed the head-end crew, I think that the “shorts” comment above is pretty much on target. If I were to hazard a guess, if smacking a gasoline tanker at a grade crossing isn’t number one on every engineer/conductor list of worst nightmares, it is darned close to the top.
At collision if air hose broken spring brakes would have engaged trailer brakes. (takes air to keep them from engaging on parking brake (emergency brake).
Plackard says 1203 - forgot what that is and not empty.
…Surviving the accident that the tanker didn’t explode, then take a close look at the truck’s fuel tank how it was dragging on the rail…and somehow still stayed connected…That crew better go buy some lottery tickets. Especially, the truck driver.
I cant believe that the report abuse crowd has not burned up the forum with this post. O you better not let your 6-8 year old ( dont remember or care) kid learning to read view this thread, Gee you might haft to exsplain something.
UN 1203 is gasoline…
I don’t know if these guys are church goers or not, but I bet they will be after this.
If the truck driver survived he’ll probably have his CDL revoked for life. If not, I doubt any insurance company will be willing to sell him a policy if this goes on his record.
The driver of that truck is indeed very lucky to be alive, and YES! He should go to church and thank God that someone was watching over him. Up until recently I had worked for a local trucking company that handles gasolines and diesel fuels and one of the guys who works there told me once that when a tanker truck explodes, the aluminum tank body would normally melt from the intense heat.
For me it certainly was #1.
#2. Propane truck
#3. Lowboy hauling very heavy equipment
#4. Dump truck
#5. Any truck that required a CDL to operate
#6. Bus (occupied)
Number 3 in your list reminded me of the Amtrak collision with the steel hauler in Bourbonnais IL a while back. That was nasty!
A co-worker of mine related a story about his father who was a crewman on a Soo Line freight train “back in the day”. His train rounded a sweeping corner and cleared a grove of trees revealing a crossing a little more than a mile ahead. Stalled on the crossing was a tank truck that had the name of a major gas station company prominently on the side. That day he was training a new crewman and the new crewman jumped to the control stand were he “hit the kill switch” shutting off the prime mover. My co-worker’s father proceeded to chew the new guy out for what he did saying that if they encountered such a thing “the smart thing” to do was to go to 100% throttle and duck just before impact. The apparent theory behind this was that the resultant fireball would be behind the cab and the crew would be safe.
Plausible or BS?
According to my ERG 1203 is a generic motor fuels. ie anything from gasoline to bunker C flammable. I would count as very very fortunate everyone involved.
When a train hits the trailer the trailer will usuallly break into lots of pieces. Hitting the tractor is different as it has a 10" or 12’ steel frame that does not break and can smash in the front of the locomotive, getting under the locomotive wheels and causing a derailment. The truck was hit on the passenger side. as long as no one was in the passenger seat, and no fire, this is a very survivable situation. (Bear in mind the truck has a 100 Gal fuel tank)
Also tank trucks have to display placards empty or loaded as their is residue in the tank.
Rgds IGN
Shutting down the prime mover would do nothing beneficial. The motor produces no spark when operating (other than the arcing of the traction motors, although the fuel pump might be a problem), so reducing the throttle to ‘idle’ would give the same safety effect (I should qualify this by saying that I have no experience on the new [post SD60 series] locomotives; it is likely that the new ones have different electronic operations). The motor would still be hot regardless. If one could shut down the motor AND get the battery switch pulled in time, then maybe the likelyhood of electronic ignition would be reduced.
To go to “100% throttle” would also produce little if any advantages. It’s not like flooring the accelerator in your car, as trains take a long time to accelerate (even a light engine takes a while). First, there is the lag time between advancing the throttle and when the load regulator begins to increase power output; second, there is just too much mass to accelerate quickly.
Throw my name in with that too. The “rest of the story” is that they came to a stop about 100’ from the crossing and didn’t hit the truck so all was ok.
If this is the same incident (not accident), I read in a newspaper story that the driver had been hit, driving a fuel truck, by a train before. “Darwin Award” time? He should be charged with “Gross Premeditated Felony Criminal Endangerment and Stupidity”, at the very least. We had a cattle-liner stop on the BNSF main a few years ago. The tractor got hit by a SD40-2 going 45 mph. Truck fuel all over the first two units, but no fire. Inside of the loco cab was soaked. The consensus was “suicide”, as he waited at the crossing until the train was too close to stop, then pulled in front of it. Is it true that 72% of pedestrian (trespasser) fatalities on railways are suicides? Not my idea of a “way-to-go”! Got some loons out there!
Hays
Way back when, George W. Hilton wrote an article in Trains about slack and slack action -
Slack
Trains, February 1976 page 22
difficulties and problems of slack
( COUPLER, “HILTON, GEORGE W.”, OPERATION, SLACK, TRN )
Setting aside for the moment why it was Hilton (an economist) who wrote this article, and not an engineer (of either kind) -
I recall that there was a quote or statement in there someplace to the effect that a gasoline tanker was the ultimate incentive for a locomotive engineer to ‘big-hole’ the train’s air brakes. The point being, that as compared to dying that way, even the ris