OMFG this bastit was drunk!

[Leslie]

Driving past tanker trucks always elicits a panic in me, which I damp down by telling myself I'm being too paranoid, that the drivers of these things would never take risks, etcetera etcetera.

I was wrong.

It looks like a bomb has been dropped on the area. And what happened at the corner of Centre and Dufferin Sts. in Thornhill Sunday hit the area like one.

A tanker carrying gasoline flipped over after the driver attempted a left turn, and burst into flames, stopping traffic, cutting hydro to a ten square kilometre area, and emitting thick black smoke that could be seen throughout the city.

There was at least 46,000 litres of fuel onboard the truck when it overturned just after 5pm, and it burned with a fierce intensity that can still be seen a day later.

A traffic light standard has partially melted, hydro lines were destroyed, soil was contaminated, and the road was badly damaged by the heat.

Amazingly, no one was injured in the inferno, which took crews from both the Vaughan and Toronto Fire Departments hours to contain. The driver of the vehicle, 40-year-old Harold Porter of Port Perry, has been charged with impaired driving.

Despite predictions the intersection would remain closed at least until Tuesday, crews have made remarkable progress, and were able to partially reopen part of the corner on Monday afternoon.

Only one lane going westbound on Centre is closed for repaving. There’s no word on when it might reopen.

Centre and Dufferin is a major conduit to Highway 7 for local residents. They’re advised to avoid the area, and use Bathurst as an alternate to bypass the mess altogether.

stoopid drunk drivers.

 

[A.B.Normal]

About a year ago a propane delivery truck driver was killed when his truck crashed and blew up .It snarled traffic for morning rushhour ,but was late/early enough(2am ish) at night that he didn't take anybody else with him.

As with all things there is always gonna be a few bad ones ,but the results can affect many in this case.


[edit] okay so it was at 10:30 at night and it never actually blew up :O http://www.finearts.uvic.ca/~pub3/mport2.html [/edit]

 

[ResearchMonkey]

Wait until we have Hydrogen cells going off all over the place.

 

[Gato_Solo]

Wait until we have Hydrogen cells going off all over the place.

Safer than gasoline. Those fuel cells are extremely stable because they're mixed with things other than hydrogen. If it was straight liquid hydrogen, or hydrogen gas, then you'd have to worry.

 

[Professur]

And hydrogen storage is the single biggest thing holding up fuel cell deployment. City buses use them, storing the tanks way up on their roofs. Few other vehicles can manage that and still be easily refueled. Buses simply return to the depot, where the special apparatus exists, and trained specialists are employed. Personal use fuel cells will probably use a hydrogen concentrate, like petrol or propane.