  Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1760 Registered: 07-2004 |
Is this like the third or fourth tanker accident in Detroit in the last few years? http://ap.google.com/article/A LeqM5g9rpir-fBAmSXpnGi1iieAoMN 59QD8U33I8G0 | ||
Sirrealone Member Username: Sirrealone Post Number: 69 Registered: 01-2007 |
Semi and tanker drivers through this area drive like lunatics. Many people talk about how semi drivers are the safest on the road, but I disagree. Maybe it was that way 20 years ago but it's definitely not the case today. I'm terrified when I'm near one because of so many of their 'I'm driving the bigger vehicle so I'm going to own this road' mentality. I feel bad for the driver that apparently died, but you'd hope that maybe this would teach a lesson to other big rig drivers to slow down and be courteous! | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1763 Registered: 07-2004 |
I think the pressure from employers to get loads from A to B faster, after less sleep, shorter turnaround, more hours driven, etc., must play some role. I don't expect any news about that, though. The news leads with death and disaster and body parts, but the other stuff sounds too much like a "labor" story. | ||
Gravitymachine Member Username: Gravitymachine Post Number: 1915 Registered: 05-2005 |
that's crazy! first gravel haulers flipping over all the time now haz-mat carriers? who knows what happened here, and as many times as i've seen big rig drivers driving as if in a sports car, i've seen just as many have to react to, at best, the erratic driving habits of those piloting passenger cars around here. | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 4539 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: http://www.roadsafeamerica.org /resources/truckingsafetystati stics.shtml | ||
Mauser765 Member Username: Mauser765 Post Number: 2322 Registered: 01-2004 |
Never hit his brakes - so it probably was a medical emergency rather than good or bad driving. | ||
Pgn421 Member Username: Pgn421 Post Number: 258 Registered: 02-2005 |
As a tractor trailer driver here in Detroit for 30 years, i have seen it all. Alot more people talking on their cell phones, texting messages,eating,drinking, and not paying attention. You cannot stop a semi carrying 40,000 lbs , on a dime. | ||
Xd_brklyn Member Username: Xd_brklyn Post Number: 359 Registered: 10-2003 |
Pgn421, is that a lot more truck drivers "talking on their cell phones, texting messages,eating,drinking, and not paying attention" or car drivers or both? Never able to look up at see if truck drivers are multi-tasking on the road too. | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 4541 Registered: 10-2003 |
I'm consistently amazed on the roads at people who will change lanes in front of a tractor trailer, or even a regular truck towing a large boat or trailer, when they see the traffic ahead is braking. Seriously dangerous. | ||
Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 543 Registered: 08-2007 |
Driver's name has not been released pending notification of next of kin. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs .dll/article?AID=/20080110/NEW S02/80110035 quote: | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1767 Registered: 07-2004 |
Must have been a spectacular explosion ... | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1768 Registered: 07-2004 |
OK, the authorities now say there were two drivers. They've released this photo:  | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1769 Registered: 07-2004 |
From WXYZ-TV: UPDATE: State police say the driver of a tanker that exploded off I-75 in Detroit was killed in the crash. A tanker crashed through an interstate guardrail and plummeted near a home below, exploding and setting the truck and the house on fire. Those in the home escaped without injury. Police say toxic fumes from the fire is preventing anyone from getting too close to the truck. Authorities also aren't sure what the tanker was carrying. A motorist says that the cab flipped over the guardrail and snapped off from the rest of the truck. Northbound lanes of the interstate are closed at the crash site. --- DETROIT (AP) - A tanker has crashed over a guardrail on Interstate 75 in southwest Detroit and exploded. The tanker crash caused a house beneath the overpass near the Rouge River Bridge to catch fire. It is not immediately known if there are any injuries. The tanker fell about 20 feet from I-75. Flames shot 75 to 80 feet in the air. Both directions of I-75 are closed in the immediate area of the crash. | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1770 Registered: 07-2004 |
UPDATE: Tanker driver in Detroit crash worked for Grand Rapids company Matt Helms and Ese Esan, The Detroit Free Press Created: 1/10/2008 10:15:18 AM Updated: 1/10/2008 2:01:21 PM Detroit - A tanker flipped off northbound I-75 from the Rouge River Bridge at the height of rush hour this morning, its payload exploding in flames and causing traffic backups for miles. And investigators say the driver killed worked for a Grand Rapdis company. The Michigan State Police Detroit post said the tanker, hauling propane, hit a cement wall near the Dearborn Road exit in Detroit around 8:20 a.m. What caused the crash wasn't immediately known. But the semi's tank fell off the freeway and exploded in flames while the truck's cab stayed on the freeway and burned, as well. “We suspect at this time that the driver was still in the cab” and killed in the crash, said State Police Sgt Ken Dilg. Officers on the scene reported no other injuries or deaths. Gainey Transportation of Grand Rapids identified the driver killed as Ronald Martinez, 60, of Albion. The company says Martinez was a five-year employee. A home near where the tank exploded was burned, but occupants escaped unharmed. The tanker fell about 20 feet, and flames shot 75 to 80 feet in the air. Marco Banner, 29, was inside his home along with his girlfriend and her son at the time of the explosion. They fled and were not hurt. The force blew out the home's windows and a fire ensued. ... Look at the photo!  | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 4805 Registered: 10-2004 |
I thought the tanker had butane (C4) aboard--not propane (C3). The tanker was only 10% filled, so it might have been sent back to be reloaded nearby. The "reporter" probably saw the red LPG signage on the vehicle and incorrectly assumed it to be propane. | ||
Rb336 Member Username: Rb336 Post Number: 4459 Registered: 02-2007 |
remember the many double-bottom tanker accidents from the late 70s? | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1771 Registered: 07-2004 |
Just going by my foggy memory, it seems to me that more kinds of dangerous trucks weren't allowed on Michigan roads in the 1980s. | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 2493 Registered: 04-2006 |
I was in the area when that truck slammed into the wall and exploded on the I-75/I-375 interchange downtown next to Comerica Park a few years ago. That was the accident that caused a fire so intense that it melted the overpass. That's why the whole thing had to be rebuilt. The smoke was so bad that it looked like the stadium itself was on fire. Wasn't it last year when that truck flipped off the I-75/I-94 interchange? Yeah, these things do seem to be happening fairly frequently... | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 6111 Registered: 08-2004 |
I remember many years ago when one outstate tanker truck accident involved (IIRC) super hot liquid aluminum (which has a very high melting point)... and caused a motorist who was in a car behind the escaping hot liquid to be roasted alive in her vehicle.  | ||
Rb336 Member Username: Rb336 Post Number: 4461 Registered: 02-2007 |
liquid aluminum??? | ||
Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 544 Registered: 08-2007 |
It is a common, but not well-known, practice to transport liquified metal around in what can be considered huge thermos bottles on wheels. Believe it or not, it saves a massive amount of energy. The liquid metal is only heated once instead of going from smelting, cooling, forming into sheets, then reheating. With liquid metal, it's poured into molds and poof!, new parts. No re-heating required. Once you know what the tankers look like, you'll be shocked to see them zooming around. | ||
Lafontaine Member Username: Lafontaine Post Number: 3 Registered: 06-2006 |
Video from myfoxdetroit.com http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/my fox/pages/Home/Detail?contentI d=5446306&version=1&locale=EN- US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1. 1 | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 4250 Registered: 12-2005 |
quote:I'd like to see a picture.  There was recently a story on TV showing how they can blow air through liquid aluminum to make a solid aluminum foam that is very good at absorbing the forces of a collision. Clever! | ||
Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 545 Registered: 08-2007 |
Jimaz, I googled "liquid metal" tankers, "molten metal" hauler, "melted metal" ... nothing pops up that matches. | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 11294 Registered: 12-2003 |
They've been doing lotsa new things with powdered metals, too. Curious. I've seen stuff transported in liquid nitrogen, but never, ever thought they transported stuff at the other end of the thermodynamic spectrum! | ||
Unclefrank Member Username: Unclefrank Post Number: 129 Registered: 03-2006 |
Driver had a long history of speeding. Wrong guy to be hauling this kind of load. | ||
Rjk Member Username: Rjk Post Number: 1002 Registered: 11-2003 |
"remember the many double-bottom tanker accidents from the late 70s?" Yeah, I was going to mention that. I recall being in my fathers car and seeing the flames from over a mile away from a tanker explosion at 12 Mile and Dequindre. I think that was around 1977. I do remember there being quite a few tankers that went up in flames over a relatively short period of time. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 4807 Registered: 10-2004 |
You might be able to spot some torpedo cars parked on a siding west of Wyoming, south of the steel company south of Warren. | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 4251 Registered: 12-2005 |
Gnome, thanks for trying. I searched too. | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 11297 Registered: 12-2003 |
Great link, Livernois, thanks. | ||
Queensfinest Member Username: Queensfinest Post Number: 149 Registered: 08-2006 |
"driver had a long history of speeding" ? what other types of jobs are you recommending that he apply for? especially in a shit economy like michigan... was probably trying to feed his poor kids. give the bloke a break, no... | ||
Missmich Member Username: Missmich Post Number: 46 Registered: 11-2007 |
They showed that on the news up here last night. There does seem to be more of these types of accidents, how awful! On a side note, damn, those houses are so close to the freeway! Dont tell me people really live that close, its right on top of them! | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 2495 Registered: 04-2006 |
quote: I'm guessing the houses were there first... | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 2209 Registered: 10-2006 |
Anyway, remember the big one on the ramp from I-75 to I-94? Guess that that was several years ago now, but it took like two years to repair that ramp. I wonder who go that bill? | ||
Luckycar Member Username: Luckycar Post Number: 67 Registered: 02-2007 |
Double bottom tankers were banned from hauling POL products in the 70's.They went on to a useful life of hauling sewage sludge(biosolids)to landfills or for farm field applications.We had a few "lay over" on exit ramps coming out of the Ann Arbor wastewater treatment plant.No fireballs,only poop ponds. | ||
Missmich Member Username: Missmich Post Number: 47 Registered: 11-2007 |
I'm guessing the houses were there first... no shit! Just amazed that any one would choose to continue to live there or that it would even be legal to build a freeway and allow the houses to remain so close | ||
Jrvass Member Username: Jrvass Post Number: 389 Registered: 01-2007 |
Gannon, I apologize. But the way Queensfinest rips on Detroit and MI is appalling. | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 11302 Registered: 12-2003 |
JR, Thanks, I only caught that AFTER I chided you here, and didn't get back fast enough to let you know I had MORE of the picture. Caustic, yeah. I'm trying to keep my opinions OF someone out of contact with them, it seems to stifle conversation with people who might need it most. We keep everyone isolated, they more easily remain caustic...and trend worse over time. Trying to build community here...it takes all types to make a village! Where would we be without our idiots? (I'd be out of a job, for one...) | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 2496 Registered: 04-2006 |
quote: Did they? Detroit's 1950 population: 1,849,568 Detroit's 2007 population: 918,849 | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 11304 Registered: 12-2003 |
I love the loose definition of 'choose'. I'm sure they are choosing another location now. I'm also pretty sure IF they had the ability and chance, they would've slept somewhere else. I've been around that neighborhood for years and years, playing around it even when that damn Zilwaukee disaster was being assembled on I-75 up in the tri-cities area...but even with all that concrete looming overhead, it was pretty peaceful. Almost nobody cruised those streets... | ||
Jrvass Member Username: Jrvass Post Number: 390 Registered: 01-2007 |
Gannon, No problem. After I hit "send", I regretted it. But seeing like a full page of posts ripping on Detroit and MI just cheesed me off. | ||
Sturge Member Username: Sturge Post Number: 201 Registered: 05-2007 |
The only thing I can find on Google about hauling liquid aluminum is the very post on this thread. LOL | ||
Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 547 Registered: 08-2007 |
I think the proper wording is "molten" not "liquid". http://www.energysolutionscent er.org/heattreat/MetalsAdvisor /aluminum/process_descriptions /molten_aluminum_handling.htm http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05E5D61039F934A3575BC0A964948260 http://www.alliedmetalcompany.com/mobile_furnace.htm (Message edited by gnome on January 11, 2008) | ||
9936sussex Member Username: 9936sussex Post Number: 72 Registered: 10-2007 |
My husband's house was the last taken when an expressway was being built. It was early 1960's, so I'm thinking it was I-75. Their neighbors house was not--ended up living right on the service drive. My in-laws weren't offered much for their house, but at least they got something and could move. The neighbors didn't get anything, and couldn't sell their house. Sometimes you don't have a choice. | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1775 Registered: 07-2004 |
It's funny to think that people look at houses along the freeway and wonder why they're there. Perhaps many of us have grown up in the newer freeway-fed suburbs and are used to sound walls, cloverleafs, and development deliberately separated from the roar of traffic. We forget that these freeways were rammed through residential neighborhoods, pushed through with a "meat cleaver" -- leaving houses abutting roaring high-speed traffic, stub-end streets that dead ended, neighborhoods that didn't connect any longer, etc. As to why would anybody live there: Everybody has to live somewhere. Housing along the freeway is loud, polluted, ugly -- and cheaper. Even the suburbs have this kind of stuff. See the north end of "Peasant Ridge" for the suburban version. | ||
Xd_brklyn Member Username: Xd_brklyn Post Number: 361 Registered: 10-2003 |
Grew up right next to I-75 & 12. In fact, the ol' house is still visible when traveling north. Still, even the constant noise of I-75 didn't prepare me for the alarms, police sirens, horns, and street traffic of living in Brooklyn. Couldn't sleep for weeks when I first got here. Now it's so in my blood that when I'm back in Madison Heights the old neighborhood sounds so quiet and peaceful. It's all relative, I guess. | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1777 Registered: 07-2004 |
Yeah, Brooklyn is a lot of unusual noises, compared to the continuous freeway roar. Best thing I ever heard out my window in Brooklyn was, in a thick Kings County accent: "What do you mean Kansas City isn't in Kansas? That's crazy!" | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 4566 Registered: 10-2003 |
I guess that would depend what side of the river you were standing on. | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1785 Registered: 07-2004 |
Heh. You had to be there... | ||
Steelers Member Username: Steelers Post Number: 2068 Registered: 10-2007 |
quote: But at the same time.... There's the Mexican long-hauler issues... quote: | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1786 Registered: 07-2004 |
Wonder what the Teamsters have to say about that... | ||
Rjk Member Username: Rjk Post Number: 1003 Registered: 11-2003 |
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pb cs.dll/article?AID=/20080112/M ETRO/801120357 This past spring I drove on that exit ramp on to Dearborn Street. I was with a friend of mine and I mentioned Fort Wayne and since he's never been there we decided to hit Jefferson and drive by. That exit ramp has to be one of the worst stretches of concrete I've ever seen, huge pot holes that rattle your car. As a matter of fact the large truck in front of us pulled up on the right shoulder to avoid the damaged concrete. I wonder if this played any part in the accident. I checked out the google satellite map and I'm guessing he had to lose control of the rig before the damage concrete starts which can be seen from the satellite, but it's possible he was starting to move to the right shoulder and lost control. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 4823 Registered: 10-2004 |
quote:Yeah! A flat tire tends to do that, especially if it were one of the two steer tires. Witnesses at the scene say that one tire was flat. Didn't state which one though. |
