"the chains broke.... and the pot slid.."

The transportation of molten aluminium over the roadways is common throughout our industry. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted incidents involving the transportation of molten metal over the road. Here is a recent story:

A truck carrying molten aluminum overturned on June 27, 2016 in the Southeastern USA.

City officials said the aluminum was so hot that it melted the asphalt road.

The local fire chief told the crash happened just before 8 p.m. at the intersection of two highways.

The tractor trailer was hauling aluminum from an aluminum smelting plant. It was heading to another aluminum plant.

When the truck overturned, it spilled about 25,000 pounds of molten aluminum onto the highway. Officials said they don’t know what caused the truck to overturn. Police told the local news the accident is still under investigation, but the Police Chief said preliminary findings indicate several factors.

“We believe it’s a combo of things – speed, the load shifted and the driver said the chains broke off the pot and the pot slid to the side of the truck, so it was a redistribution of weight, a little bit of speed and the 90-degree turn he went around,” the police chief said.

The roadway reopened to motorists mid-afternoon Tuesday.

Charges are not expected against the driver of the truck.

Crews had to wait for the aluminum to cool before removing it from the road. After that, the road was repaved and resurfaced. The road was reopened by 10 a.m. Tuesday. City officials said no one was injured.

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog is glad that the truck driver nor any bystanders were injured in this incident. The preliminary investigation identified, speed of the vehicle, load shifted, chains broke, etc.  We hope that the root cause(s) of this accident are determined and procedures, actions are taken to prevent recurrence.

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