ADR Horror Stories

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
21

Wheel Nut:

AlexWignall:
I enjoyed his embarassment so much I can’t remember Wheel Nut.

I’ve got an ADR (sort of) horror story of my own. I’d forgotten it till now.

I tipped a very thin glucose at Shell Pernis. They provide Stikstoff (nitrogen I think) to pressure the tanker. I vented it and secured the manlids in the open position.

I went to clean at Den Hartoghs (spelling?) up the road. On the way I got a message to replace the Spraybollen. So after I booked in I clambered into the tank to put them in.

I got the first two in and collapsed. Luckily under an open Manlid. As the warm tank cooled it drew in fresh air that kept me alive. After some time I came to, climbed out of the tank and rang work from the cab phone (I didn’t have the energy to stagger to the office).

The ambulance man woke me up in the cab and I got a night in ICU in Rotterdam General.

W

You are very lucky to be able to write this story, or any other for that matter. :open_mouth:

That is presumably what happened to Bob Hirst at Norman Lewis, he went missing over the weekend and was found on Monday morning inside his trailer. Dead of course. You may remember it happening in Huls at Marl

Stickstoffe, Stikstof or Azote

i remember it well as i was there and noticed the truck parked on the parking area when left wasn’t till later i found out he had died . god bless him

22

ricardo62:
Hi winseer just out pof curiosty wat would happen if oleum and hydrogen peroxide came imto contact ?

The vast majority of H2O2 available for sale is in very dilute form. If we’re talking about this, then the reaction would be similar to merely pouring oleum into water, or adding it to oleum which is far more dangerous. Since they are both oxidising agents, there’d be little effect apart from some release of Oxygen more due to the thermal decomposition of the peroxide as a result of the sulphuric acid heating up on contact with the water the peroxide is diluted with.

“conc” hydrogen peroxide (99%) is corrosive in a similar manner to nitric acid. The strong oxidising power will cause flammable material to spontaneuously combust, and if mixed with high-yield fuels, will even explode. Such a mixture that is then “explosive on contact between the two liquids” is known as “hypergolic” and has been the subject of many feature films involving mixing two liquids to make a pretty hefty bomb. :smiling_imp:

You can make a “bottle blonde” out of dilute hydrogen peroxide, but in the conc state, it’s serious trouble.

(reaction with household organic materials)

23

The most dangerous materials are pressurised liquid chlorine or ammonia.OK olium will burn you but at least it can be contained if a pressurised gas barrel ruptures anybody downwind within 500 meters will have no lung lining left.Thats why they used this stuff in the first world war .Nasty crap.

Plus Chlorine has another nasty little trick it will allow combustion without oxygen being present and can produce some very nasty chloride residues like hydrochloric acid

Think they do it on a bit bigger scale than a test tube at Rocksavage or maybe Kastner kellener ICI sites.Used to produce over 30 tons a day.

24

THe only time I’ve come across liquid chlorine is when condensing it into a ice-packed test tube having passed it through conc sulphuric to dry it and a big flask of HCL+KMnO4 to drive the Chlorine out of the HCL in the first place.

THe biggest danger we were always told was “not getting the conc H2SO4 on the Permangnate” cos it creates Permangnic acid which is highly unstable.

(Conc acid that explodes!) :open_mouth:

25

Went to an RTA a while back on the A1. When we get a job, we never know what to expect, just get minimal details (in this case 2 HGV RTA).
I flew down to weigh the job up. Found a trailer loaded with gas bottles, some of which were loose and leaking, and a decker with a mixed load of limited quantities. The taut was carrying marine paint, car batteries, paint thinners, aerosols, boxes of paper, hotel linen, foodstuffs, drums of engine oil, all of which was scattered across the road and mixed up.
Was a messy job.

Another job we attended was a tautliner overturned at Scotch Corner loaded with, ironically, 27 tons of Glenfiddich!
One bottle in a tube, 6 tubes in a box, loads of boxes on a pallet, loads of pallets all over the road.
Worst part of that job was the abount of HATO’s pulling up helping themselves to the load.
We pointed out that, although damaged, the load belonged to the haulier, and if they chose to help themselves to it they were stealing it. Didn’t stop them taking it. There were Land Cruisers turning up every 10 mins.

We also brought in a Transit van for the police. The police had snatched it because they’d caught travellers robbing metal out of an empty factory. Got the van unloaded in the forensics bay, then got a phone call: Don’t touch the van, Don’t get in the van, Don’t do anything with the van, Cordon the van off and await further instruction.
Okayyyyy…
Turns out the tinkers had been cutting steel pipelines out of the factory, had cut through a pipe that contained HydroFluoric acid, the acid had leaked across the floor where they were ‘working’. They’d been walking about in it, it had eaten through their boots and into their feet. Last we heard, the only remedy for them was amputation.
Now, depending on your point of view, some may call that poetic justice :slight_smile:

More recently, back at Scotch Corner, there’s spacemen and machine guns out.
Police had pulled a white ■■■■■■ van because they thought it was on fire, smoke coming out the back. They pulled it onto the weighbridge at Scotch (where the VOSA were out). Opened up and there’s half a dozen 45 gallon drums in the back, unmarked and fuming like hell. Fire brigade called, area cordoned, armed response called.
Turns out, the barrels contained concentrated hydrochloric acid. None of the barrels marked up (or strapped in), the vehicle wasn’t marked up, Iraqi driver had no insurance, no ADR ticket, no paperwork nor any idea what he was carrying. So all in all, Fire Brigade chemical response, Police armed response, Environments Agency, Vosa and immigration all called out.
Needless to say, the van was confiscated!

26

davepenn54:
I can confirm that the M6 death is not an urban myth, I can remember it happening but it was definetly in the early 70’s because it was after I started working in the haulage game, the summer of 1970. IIRC it was one of Harold Wood’s and it was a winters evening and that bit of the M6 was unlit, as was most of the motorway network at the time. also I think it occured around the Shevington area of the M6 which is north of the M62 split which also, as previously said, didn’t open fully until the early 70’s
I also seem to remember that ‘the nurse’ had her daughter in the car with her and she also suffered some injuries but didn’t die.

There are some things that happen on the road that you never forget about and this was certainly one of them. I’m sure some of the real details have been exaggerated over the period of time but as has already been stated this tragic death brought about the big changes in the transportation and road/rail movement of hazardous goods.

I’m sure there must be some others on here who were around, working in transport, at the time who clearly remember this happening as it was a major national news item.

i smell bs diesel dave posted the actual story it was a foggy morning not a winters evening

27

Someone told me that I should not burn the hosepipes of my modeo, because the melting composite apparently forms hydroflouric acid on melting…

Dunno if there’s any truth in it or not, but it’s not as if I wake up in the morning and say “Hey, I think I’ll start a little fire under my radiator hose this morning!” :astonished:

If you got this very nasty crap on your face, I’d imagine the effect would be similar to this…

(Not for kids :open_mouth: )

28

When I was a teenager in the 1950s my father was an officer in the Royal Engineers based at Cardiff. For some time, every month or so, he had to go to Barry Dock to supervise the unloading of a train full of obsolete, out of date, ammunition onto a cargo boat to be taken out to sea and dumped.

The ammunition, which was all sorts from 1 ton bombs to rifle cartridges and explosives packed in wooden crates, arrived in open trucks behind a steam engine. They were unloaded by soldiers, by hand mostly, onto the dockside and then craned on board in nets.

He took me with him once to see it and I do not remember a hard hat or a high viz vest anywhere to be seen. I do remember squaddies in a line, passing small bombs from hand to hand.

Diesel Dave would have had a fit:)

29

This may not be strictly what this thread is about, but a few year back a feller I used to work with told me a tale of when he worked for Leathers Chemicals, he was ether delivering or loading at a company in Yorkshire but had arrived to late to do ether, so as he lived a only a few miles away and not fancying a night in the cab left his tank there and took the unit home for the night, never had to go back the next day for his tank as that place was FLIXBOROUGH as he said if he had stayed maybe he wouldn’t be here now, have never had a reason to disbelieve him, anyone who hasn’t heard of or know what happened at Flixborough look it up on the net, all I can say is lucky man.

Ossie

30

OssieD:
This may not be strictly what this thread is about, but a few year back a feller I used to work with told me a tale of when he worked for Leathers Chemicals, he was ether delivering or loading at a company in Yorkshire but had arrived to late to do ether, so as he lived a only a few miles away and not fancying a night in the cab left his tank there and took the unit home for the night, never had to go back the next day for his tank as that place was FLIXBOROUGH as he said if he had stayed maybe he wouldn’t be here now, have never had a reason to disbelieve him, anyone who hasn’t heard of or know what happened at Flixborough look it up on the net, all I can say is lucky man.

Ossie

We may not want Flixborough, but we have to accept that it is and always has been in LINCOLNSHIRE(except when they called it Humberside for a few years :slight_smile: ). Trying to involve us with those ■■■■ Yorkies causes a lot of upset :grimacing:
And yes he was extremely lucky.

31

Sorry feller I’m originally from down south so have to ask for a bit of lee way.

Ossie

32

No problem. Anywhere south of Watford Gap is the wilderness to me :sunglasses:

33

The picture of the lady who died in the M6 tanker incident is not copywrite and you do not have to attend a consortium course to view it. The picture in question is the official mortuary taken at the time
Send me an email and I will forward you a copy.
This story is being so exaggerated I am starting to get a belly ache with laughter each time I read them
It wasnt until 1979 that tanker markings were deployed in the UK

34

ADR1:
The picture of the lady who died in the M6 tanker incident is not copywrite and you do not have to attend a consortium course to view it. The picture in question is the official mortuary taken at the time
Send me an email and I will forward you a copy.
This story is being so exaggerated I am starting to get a belly ache with laughter each time I read them
It wasnt until 1979 that tanker markings were deployed in the UK

Yes… I got told the exact same story too, with the photographic evidence… As well as the video of the guy that got shot off the top of the tanker by the pressure from inside… as well as a few other nasty vids/pics.

There’s some nasty stuff behind some of them orange boards.

35

If we all mollycoddle ourselves in the name of “not for kids - think of the children” blah blah - then we risk making the very serious nature of everyday health and safety issues “A bit of a joke”.

How many of us have heard the proverbial “horror stories” that melt into legend, myth and “Oh I must have heard that one from the guy down the pub” kinda thing?

However - if you get the hard-hitting film from the very beginning, and it actually gives you the nightmare… You bloody well remember it forever, teach your kids and grandkids, and surely that’s a good thing 'cos lives - even one life - is saved.

Remember the old public information films from when we were kids?
This one I didn’t get to see until I was an adult (Electricity danger, not listening in class, not being sensible and stopping your peers) one) - but It gets the message across that perhaps the most dangerous thing of all is “Crass stupidity and ignorance”. :open_mouth:

36

Any special requarement for glasses by ADR rulles.■■?I lost my and buy this screwfix.com/p/site-2101-smo … pecs/1751g.
And safety glasses must clear lens or possible smoke lens■■?

37

Does double thread resurrection have a special meme? :slight_smile:

As for ADR, they have to be suitable for the task at hand, although to be honest I doubt a lot of sites would be too happy if you wore tinted safety glasses whether for ADR or not.

The employer should provide suitable eyewear as with the rest of the PPE. A lot of sites that need specialist eyewear, will require side parts to general safety glasses not just wrap around either based on my experience.

38

willie_mac:
I know a haulier who did a night trunk carrying ADR and only ADR for a national parcel company and they didnt have one driver with an ADR card.

I reckon this is still alarmingly common

Edit: didn’t realise how old this post was! This was even more common back then!

39

I’ve refused a load at a well-known courier firm before - because it consisted of many half-filled-with-petrol lawnmowers that were not even fastened down to the pallets properly.
On their way to the grreat scrapyard for lawnmowers in de sky I guess. (or disguise?)

Scrapped Lawnmowers.jpg
Scrapped Lawnmowers.jpg719×337 55.1 KB

I didn’t fancy ending up going to the (petroleum) spirit in the sky during the trip, of course! :open_mouth:

40

Winseer:
I’ve refused a load at a well-known courier firm before - because it consisted of many half-filled-with-petrol lawnmowers that were not even fastened down to the pallets properly.
On their way to the grreat scrapyard for lawnmowers in de sky I guess. (or disguise?)
0

I didn’t fancy ending up going to the (petroleum) spirit in the sky during the trip, of course! :open_mouth:

A VERY long time ago I had to collect the waste from a company cleaning out the inside of some petrol storage tanks. It was in 45gallon drums with plastic sheets tied over the top! I refused that, but went back when the waste was in drums with metal tops. All loaded on a flat with ropes and sheets. Through a busy shopping center on the way to the haz dump. Moan about “nanny state, over the top, H & S” all you want things are much better now than they were.