I don’t hold an ADR ticket, but was worried about the very heavy smell of petrol as I was shown the load I was to be taking there The picture above is just a stock picture that happens to look very similar to that load, all piled up, but with petrol ■■■■■■■ out of every one that wasn’t dead upright. There was already some petrol running around, rapidly evapourating on the floor of the trailer. I informed TM that a spark might be enough to set the mixture off, to which I got the retort “That’s an old trailer anyway”. (Scruffy looking Tiphook blue curtainsider thing with all bent curtainpoles, repaired cuts in the curtains, but a smooth good-condition floor) FFS He didn’t even ask me if I had an ADR ticket before pushing this assignment at me.
I didn’t get banned from site for refusing this particular load though, I was just found something else to do on that occasion. The Ban came later when I refused to have a booked 9 hour shift on agency be converted into a 15 hour one upon arrival. I said “I’ve not had enough sleep to do a 15 hour tonight”. I was told “Your agency said you’ve only done the two 15 hour shifts so far this week - so you’re refusing to do the job you’ve been ordered to do, and thus you’re banned from site. Go home, and I won’t be paying your 8 hours either!” (I went home, and did get paid the 8 hours, and two week’s later I was sheepishly called back in, because there presumably wasn’t any other driver available to cover a last-minute sickie on a friday night. )
Winseer:
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”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoL3MjllVSs
I was carrying a PTO tank with sulphuric acid around 1000 litres, I had other drops on aswell, I got to the drop before the PTO pumpover and noticed liquid streaming from the PTO tank and on to the bed, I thought it was coming from the Camlock until it just stopped, looking at the back of the PTO tank I could see that it was coming from the top hatch where the rubber seal is.
That was one long day, start work at 6 am notified my company at 12pm, cleanup crew got to me at 7pm, 2 hours to decant the PTO and clean up the truck, then wait for the boss to bring another driver as I’d run out of time, got home at 1.30am.
Even though I’d been in contact with the boss all day and giving updates, it was my fault because he had to pick me up late at night!!
Used to carry nitric acid in lead containers (before ADR) and they used to leak and burn holes in your clothes and skin if you were unlucky enough.
Know of a guy who handed another guy two glass bottles of sulphuric acid, the guy tripped and was hospitilised with severe life changing burns.
Maybe some of the H&S has helped in recent years!
Bikemonkey:
When I was doing my ADR training our trainer told us of an accident on the M6 a few years ago involving a tanker carrying Oleum (potent sulphuric acid)and a number of other vehicles,the some or all of the acid spilled on the carriageway…a nurse was passing and got out to try an help,as she did she came into contact with the acid and within minutes all that was left of her was her badge on her uniform
Dunno how true it was,or how much was exaggerated,quite scary though.
It’s very true unfortunately. Happened in the 1960s.
Hydrofloric acid is what I think that Oleum is the equivalent too? Or that’s what I think was said of it.
The tanker was struck by a scaffolding wagon and the tubes pierced the side of it. The driver was fine and stayed in his cab, the scaffolder wagon occupants escaped before the acid fumes got near. Then the nurse on her way back from the hospital was passing, despite the tanker driver banging on his window trying to tell her to get back, she didn’t, came closer, passed out amid the acid. Policeman came close next to try and get her, but was pulled back by bystanders who saw and cottened on to what the stuff was doing. He suffered acid burns though and was off work for many months recovering.
Some of her was left, the picture of her was released with the permission of her family and is used on presentations etc, including the CPC course (which was the ADR segment) I was on. It was in B/W. There was nothing but her torso left, cleanly melted away everything else. Very sobering stuff indeed.
They tightened the HAZMAT markings / ADR requirements after that incident took place.
Worst stuff I haul is anhydrous ammonia, We nearly at the end of the season here now. . . Anyway, seems every now and then, a newbie to the product always seems to get “burned” by the stuff, there was a picture going around the company a few years ago when someone picked up a hose with a loose valve and he knocked it and took a shot of liquid ammonia to the chest. Luckily he got off lightly with just some blistering on his chest as he wasn’t wearing his chem suit which we have to wear when handling the stuff. Apparently if you come into contact with liquid ammonia then it’s like being hit with napalm, it sticks to you but instead of burning a hole in you, it’s pretty much instant frostbite and had to be washed off with water. NH3 can be some nasty stuff, There is a video on YouTube that one can watch where a US cop walks into a cloud of it and is killed, although it is believed to be a staged training video. Still, you don’t wanna get too much down you as it will certainly wake you up in light vapour but a cloud will take your breath away and I think will shut down your lungs or something and you pretty much suffocate until death
Propane can be crappy too, buddy of mine had his hand burned by it a couple of years ago, again, a loose valve that he knocked and spilled some liquid propane on his hand and still had a scar today from it.
Pressurised gasses are easy to haul but painfully dangerous and deadly if it all goes to ■■■■!
To tag on. From my own experience of being on a site that made HF. (Laporte, GinHouse Lane Rotherham). If you are carrying Hydrofluoric Acid then the driver should be supplied with Calcium Gluconate Gel and additional instructions on what to do. It is a killer, replaces the calcium in the blood stream with fluorine and once the calcium in your blood stream is depleted then you go into calcium shock. Then you die of the effects of shock.
cooper1203:
hay bales are… i forget the accronym somthing like sadt (self accelerating decomposition temperature) just like poroxides etc
Hay Bales are covered under UN1327. Class 4.1 - Flammable Solids.
On the road - not dangerous goods. Load Hay bales on a ferry.? Oh yes, the hay bales are under IMDG rules. (Maritime rules, i.e. on the sea, I cannot comment on the Rail or Inland Waterway or IATA rules as beyond the scope of my knowledge).
You are correct with remembering SADT. Self Accelerating Decomposition Temperature. If anybody as a driver is carrying these Dangerous Goods and the temperature exceeds it. The steps you need to take are big ones, away from the load.
cooper1203:
hay bales are… i forget the accronym somthing like sadt (self accelerating decomposition temperature) just like poroxides etc
Hay Bales are covered under UN1327. Class 4.1 - Flammable Solids.
On the road - not dangerous goods. Load Hay bales on a ferry.? Oh yes, the hay bales are under IMDG rules. (Maritime rules, i.e. on the sea, I cannot comment on the Rail or Inland Waterway or IATA rules as beyond the scope of my knowledge).
You are correct with remembering SADT. Self Accelerating Decomposition Temperature. If anybody as a driver is carrying these Dangerous Goods and the temperature exceeds it. The steps you need to take are big ones, away from the load.
If you turn up to catch a ferry with a load of straw (flat trailer or curtainsider) - it must be covered - it wil be inspected to make sure no bits of straw are sticking out from below the covers . It has to have the stickers on all 4 sides of the trailer . (These are the rules in P+O Cairnryan , other ferry companies are available)
With all these “explosions” taking place around the world of late, the latest being the big one in Bangladesh that has killed over 50 people, including a dozen or so fire fighters…
What, I wonder - is the main culprit “Chemical” behind such catastrophic events?
Very few “Flammables” are also “Explosive” - but ordinary Gasoline/RBOB Petrol - is one of such chemicals, 3YE…
With my conspiratal hat on, I wonder if any or all of these international events - are being done as “Sabotage” to turn the world’s public against Fossil Fuels, and onto nice, safe (and “doesn’t bloody work”) Green, renewable energy, where we’ll fall flat on our faces in any hot war event thereafter…
“Sorry Mr Chamberlain, you can’t declare war on ■■■■ Germany for invading Poland - we don’t have enough power stations any more!”
Steve-o:
Anyone got any stories about carrying/delivering ADR goods? Acid burning through gloves etc. What’s the most dangerous stuff you can carry?
The boss at my last place was a skinflint, used to reuse the 10 gallon acid containers.
Filled one of them up with Hydrochloric acid for a customer, unknown to me,there was a crack in the side of it,it leaked out and ate a big hole in the floor of our delivery van.
Boss wasn’t amused.
when i was on for m elliott & sons, we used to do explosives for the military, one day we went to load up at an munitions factory an there was a jobsworth there. he made us take out our full adr kit and checked everything. then he made us take out our fire extinguishers and checked them. once he was satisfied he told us we could put our stuff away. i picked up the dry powder extinguisher and lifted it to put it back in its cupboard. as i did, without realising, the pin dropped out where mr jobsworth had been messing with it. i pushed the extinguisher into the cupboard and accidentally charged the lever, covering 4 of us in white powder. we all looked like ghosts. mr jobsworth was not amused, especially when i told him that he had inspected the fire extinguisher and should have noticed the pin was loose.
not a horror story i know, but this thread reminded me of it
When I was doing my ADR training our trainer told us of an accident on the M6 a few years ago involving a tanker carrying Oleum (potent sulphuric acid)and a number of other vehicles,the some or all of the acid spilled on the carriageway…a nurse was passing and got out to try an help,as she did she came into contact with the acid and within minutes all that was left of her was her badge on her uniform
Dunno how true it was,or how much was exaggerated,quite scary though.
