Truck strikes passenger car spills molten metal...

The hauling of molten metal on roadways is done without incident on a daily basis with almost no incidents. Almost no incidents. Here is a recent incident emphasizing the hazard of over the road transport.

Traffic Advisory from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet according to the assistant fire chief for the Daviess County Fire Department, at 7:10 a.m. this morning emergency crews were dispatched to an accident with injuries at the intersection of US 231 N and Hwy. 60 E. When crews arrived on the scene they found a passenger car off of the roadway, and a semi-truck carrying molten aluminum overturned in the northbound lane of Hwy 60. (This occurred in September 2018)

The drivers of both vehicles were transported to Owensboro Health with non-life-threatening injuries.

The crash is blocking the northbound lanes of US 231 near the 12-mile marker in Daviess County. This is along US 231 just north of the US 60 intersection near the Natcher Bridge and blocks northbound access to the bridge into Indiana.

Northbound access to the Natcher Bridge via US 231 is blocked and likely to continue to be blocked for another four hours. US 60 remains open at the intersection with east and west access open between Owensboro and Lewisport.

The suggested detour is via the KY 2262 Ohio River “Blue” Bridge in downtown Owensboro, or the KY 69 Ohio River Bridge at Hawesville.

According to the KTC, this is the second truck to crash in the last six months carrying molten aluminum. Emergency crews learned from the last incident how to work with this substance. According to Blandford, the temperature of the liquid substance is an estimated eight thousand degrees and cannot be sprayed with water and must be given time to dry before scraping off in one piece.

The DCFD and emergency crews have been on the scene for two hours, and anticipate three more as they wait for the aluminum substance to solidify for removal. For this reason, the estimated duration for clean-up is about four hours or around 12 p.m.

The accident is currently under investigation.

We pray that the injured truck driver and motorist recover fully from this incident. Later news reports state that the truck driver failed to stop for a red light. Nevertheless, this could have turned out very bad for both vehicles. Many of these incidents do not go reported. In addition there are many incidents where a vehicle hauling molten metal on company property overturns or spills metal. Those incidents too do not get reported. We would assume that atleast once a week a truck overturns somewhere in the world hauling molten metal either on the roadways or inside the company fences. That might sound high but it is a very very small percentage of the total amount of vehicles that transport metal on a daily basis.

The Aluminium Times Magazine had an article on this topic which can be downloaded here.

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