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Re: Truck and Amtrak #5 collide near Lovelock, NV; one dead on train
Author: Dr Zarkoff
Date: 06-24-2011 - 21:33
>It is somewhat odd that a diesel powered truck would "explode" as much as it did.
It's the large fuel tanks, frequently one on each side of the tractor: smash, atomize the fuel, a spark sets it off, then the flames heat up the plastics inside the car until they start spewing nasty gaseous s**t. BTDT myself on the Santa Fe near Sharon years ago. The temperature in the lounge car went from a cool 68 to 90 in seconds, and that was just from the car traveling though the fireball -- fortunately nothing caught on fire, although the lounge car looked like it had been painted all over with flat black paint and in every single window, the exterior glass cracked (this was a stainless steel California Corridor lounge). The truck was a cab-over towing double hopper bottoms of freshly picked pstachios and drove right in front of the train, which was doing track speed (79 mph).
The Hershey's truck at Mariposa Road also left skid marks this long.
It's the large fuel tanks, frequently one on each side of the tractor: smash, atomize the fuel, a spark sets it off, then the flames heat up the plastics inside the car until they start spewing nasty gaseous s**t. BTDT myself on the Santa Fe near Sharon years ago. The temperature in the lounge car went from a cool 68 to 90 in seconds, and that was just from the car traveling though the fireball -- fortunately nothing caught on fire, although the lounge car looked like it had been painted all over with flat black paint and in every single window, the exterior glass cracked (this was a stainless steel California Corridor lounge). The truck was a cab-over towing double hopper bottoms of freshly picked pstachios and drove right in front of the train, which was doing track speed (79 mph).
The Hershey's truck at Mariposa Road also left skid marks this long.
