Truck rolls and explodes with Ammonium Nitrate

R.C interesting the newspaper reports didn't come straight out and say the truck was carrying AN, they said, the truck was carrying chemicals.

This is a bit more of an updated story and explains a bit more.

au.news.yahoo.com/a/24919642/investigato...e-in-south-west-qld/

Yes interesting

Rescue crews were trying to extract the driver from the truck when they found out there was ammonium nitrate inside.

They were making a mad dash from the truck when it exploded.

Inspectors said it was the slight rise of 1.5 metres from where the truck rolled under the bridge to where they were standing that ultimately save their lives.

They were really lucky.... really, really, really lucky..

The truck was travelling south.....Gladstone to Adelaide, that had me stumped as I know the railway is on the western side of the road for miles along there.
We used to load prill out of ICI Botany, it never crossed my mind it was loaded in Gladstone now. :

Hi BK, ICI has been making "prill" up at Yarwun/Gladstone for about three decades now. It's out on the Port Curtis Rd, past the Power House and before the Aluminium Refinery.

regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

BK

There is a Nitro plant at Gladstone (Orica? I Believe), Moranbah and Moura (both owned by Dyno Noble - the old Incetec?).

The ICI Sydney Plant of years ago was replaced by one at Newcastle.

ALL - like in the Taroom incident - only a small portion of the load actually exploded. The Taroom blast was eventually estimated at around 4-5 tons of the 18.5 ton load. Seems the Charlieville thing is the same - just a small part of the total load. The reason getting access to the site took so long was because some of it was still burning. EG: they were allowing it to burn out as apposed to risk getting close enough to put water on it.

Its been reported that the people on scene headed up the bank after one of the trucks fuel tanks exploded. EG: was a small blast first - followed some time later by the big one. Also - it seems that the people were saved due to the blast wave being deflected over their heads by the shape of the river bank acting as a deflecter. So - up the bank then a 'wave' action - taking it over their heads - then the wave breaking (coming back to ground level) at/about where the 1st fire truck was parked.

It would also appear that the prime mover and the trailers have separated during the actual roll over (crash) part - hence it being located some distance away from where the trailers (load) landed.

Can anyone confirm that the trailers (B Double) were tankers and not semitippers???? I believe they were tankers - hence a major portion of the load would have been contained/protected.

This product actually 'melts' not burn away to ash and smoke. It essentially smolders and as it heats it turns from a solid to a liquid. That liquid will then cool and resolidify. In the Taroom incident - the truck was parked on a fairly steep hill - so the liquid flowed down hill in a very similar way to a lava. flow

The portion of the load that did explode was calcuated by estimating the amount that had made up the lava trail, plus an estimation of the qty of the raw (intact) material that was spread around - deducted from the initial 18.5T.

The first expert (Mines Inspecter from the Moura Coal Mine) to arrive at the Taroom scene made the following statment after his initial brief inspection of the site - and that was: "Prepared correctly - I could create this sort of damage with a wheel barrow full of Nitro". However - allowing for the situation here - I'd guess around 4 tons has done this damage". His estimation was later confirmed by experts applying the process mentioned above.

The unburnt/unmelted part of the load was scattered for miles around by the blast - and served to keep the immediate location very green for the next few years.

For anyone still interested - I am still progressing with my book on the Taroom event. Still a long way from print - however - I can report I have only got about 4 lines of actual investigation to run down - and then start the process of re-interviewing (face to face) all my informants.

Oldfulla

The first reports of the accident all said "tanker" then later changed to "truck".
53 tonne is the reported load.......9 1/2 tonne tare for a b double ??.....sounds more like a road train load to me, but what do I know.

I live south of the crash site on the Mitchell Hwy, I first noticed the Kalari trucks running past probably 12 to 18 mths ago their distinctive colour scheme and presentation makes them stand out. I see them go past empty heading north with 2 flat tops on sometime piggy backing the 2nd trailer, they return with what appears to me to be a load of bulker bags on, the load is always very well tarped down so it hard to see , but I assume that it is one of these road trains that crashed.
My two bobs worth.

the load is 2 flat tops of bulk bags. It is a reasonably new contract loading in Gladstone and delivering to South Australia somewhere.
The plant in Moura is QNP. Queensland Nitrates.

Also to add,
reports were going around that a police car 10Km from the accident site had its windows blown out by the explosion. The truck driver has burns to 30% of his body and 4 firefighters were injured. Extremely lucky no one died at this accident and 5 very fortunate people who should all be buying lotto tickets.
See Ya,
Daryl.