Physics can be fun and destructive!
Apr. 29th, 2007 09:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreThis morning in the section of the Bay Bridge approach known to locals as the MacArthur Maze, a tanker truck went a little too fast, and had an oopsie. Well, actually, he crashed and his tanker full of unleaded exploded.
But that's not the fun part. No, the fun part is he was under the 580/80 connector ramp when his load began to oxidize rapidly, releasing large amounts of heat. Which softened the steel supports of said connector ramp, which meant that gravity soon noticed this big chunk of concrete and asphalt with no viable means of support, reached out, and...
Here's the full story.
The driver? Crawled out of the wreck on his own, hailed a cab, and is now in the hospital with critical but non-life threatening burns.
You cannot begin to imagine how happy I am that my route doesn't come near the Bay Bridge. I see a surge in ridership on BART and the ferries. Right now, they have no estimate on how long this will take to fix, but one official on the radio said "could be a couple of months."
But that's not the fun part. No, the fun part is he was under the 580/80 connector ramp when his load began to oxidize rapidly, releasing large amounts of heat. Which softened the steel supports of said connector ramp, which meant that gravity soon noticed this big chunk of concrete and asphalt with no viable means of support, reached out, and...
Here's the full story.
The driver? Crawled out of the wreck on his own, hailed a cab, and is now in the hospital with critical but non-life threatening burns.
You cannot begin to imagine how happy I am that my route doesn't come near the Bay Bridge. I see a surge in ridership on BART and the ferries. Right now, they have no estimate on how long this will take to fix, but one official on the radio said "could be a couple of months."
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the good news is.....
Date: 1 May 2007 06:49 (UTC)it's a given that all the aluminum parts are smoke, but there *may* be some frame or engine block left, if they were ferrous.
more than a few years back there was an accident here in Lost Angels that burned the truck and (iirc) one car. they ID'd the car because a license plate broke free and spun forward of the burn zone. they ID'd the truck when one of the local companies figured out who hadn't made their deliveries that night. the rough spot on the pavement is sitll there on the N-710, right around Del Amo Blvd.
redc1c4,
who remembers the JP-4 tanker drivers being a bit excitable %-)