Suicide jockey wrecks.....

The transport of molten metal to plants is done on a daily basis safely. On occasion an accident occurs making the public aware of a hazard that we know too well. Here is a recent incident emphasizing the hazard of over the road crucibles:

A local County Fire Department and the County Sheriff's Office are responding to an accident, involving an overturned semi carrying molten aluminum at 19:00 one evening during the week of April 22, 2018 in the USA.

The accident occurred just prior to a bridge over a large river. Both the North and South lanes of the highway were diverted for approximately three and half hours while the accident was cleaned up.

We chose not to disclose the location of this incident because some media reported that the truck driver was injured in this accident. We pray that the injured driver recovers fully from his incidents and that the truck can be repaired. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted other incidents but they involved wet dirt roads, snowy roads, and wet roads. It appears that there was no precipitation at the time of the accident. 

Other truckers call truckers who haul hazard material as “suicide jockeys”. We find that moniker to be rather strong. But acknowledge that if something goes wrong it will go horribly wrong because of the molten metal being hauled.

So how often does this occur? Around the globe we would assume at minimum one trailer overturns a month or 12 times a year. That figure may sound high, but given the amount of trucks hauling molten metal on a daily basis that figure is very very low. The Aluminium Times Magazine had an article about this topic. The article can be downloaded here.

Please note, while viewing the photo in the article, 2 out of 3 crucibles remained intact. Only one was compromised. Compare that to this incident where both crucibles leaked.

Please comment.