Lucy:
I remember that one. It was the M3, just the London side of Fleet I think…Gas bottles wasn’t it? Heating up and launching like missiles?
Hi Lucy, yes that’s exactly what happened.
MMTM that the exact spot can still be found by noticing a gap in the trees at the side of the motorway. 
r-kid:
dieseldave i’m suprised you’ve not mentioned the ethanol tanker that overturned on a roundabout at ellesmere port. the one that was on fire but the firebrigade who were stood only a few yard’s away from it did’nt know. because ethanol burn’s clear the firebrigade could’nt see it burning they just thought it had overturned it was only when the police helicopter flew above and put the heat sensor on that they realised. they only just managed to get away from it before it exploded.
p.s dave just a thought isn’t class 9 the worst. due to it being a mixture of crap so making it harder to deal with in an emergency situation
Hi r-kid, You’re spot-on with the story, but you got the name of the stuff slightly wrong, it’s called methanol.
Ethanol is slightly different.
This is what it was:
UN 1230 METHANOL, 3 (6.1), PGII
. 
As for class 9, you’re spot-on again, yes it can be very dangerous indeed.
All the other classes (1-8) have an easily identifiable hazard, which can be discovered by looking at the little symbol in the top half of any of the class labels, for example, all class 4s burn, because the symbol is a flame.
The class 9 label is the only one not to follow this pattern.
The ‘stuff’ in class 9 can be very miscellaneous, hence the name of the class. With class 9, you haven’t a clue from the label as to what you’re carrying , so it’s more important than ever to have correct written information.
Shrek:
I heard the nurse story years ago…I was told only her rings survived…bloody unpleasant if it’s true but I’d always thought the story was too OTT to be owt other than an urban myth.
Hi Shrek It’s no myth mate, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve shown that pic to the guys when I’m running a Consortium ADR course.
Shrek:
I was once sent to a chemical factory in a transit van for a 250 gallon drum for export. I got the drum on the van, no straps or anything like that, and I was sat waiting for the bod to come out with the export paperwork. Who remembers TREM Cards? (Transport Emergency Cards)
I think you might mean a 200 Ltr drum. 
(45 Gall.)
We still use “Tremcards,” but they have come on a very long way since that time.
Shrek:
…this was before ADR and you didn’t need to have orange plates on the vehicle.
It wasn’t before ADR, but AT THAT TIME, there was an exemption based on the size of the vehicle. Strange but true is that in those days, ADR didn’t apply to vehicles of less than 3.5t GVW. That exemption ended on 01/01/07.
Anyway, just as it happens, you could carry that one 200 Ltr drum even now, without needing an ADR certificate, if the phenol was described as a “solution.”
Shrek:
Anyway, I was sat in the van waiting so I read the TREM card for this stuff…PHENOL…scared the bloody life out of me! Apparently if you get any on you…you’re dead. If you breathe the fumes…you’re dead, if you look at it in a funny way…you’re dead.
It’s rather nasty stuff isn’t it??
Just to put your mind at ease, phenol solution isn’t in the most dangerous category.
Shrek:
I drove rather slowly and carefully back to the yard and never ever wanted to carry dangerous crap again!
Reading the written info and driving carefully were very smart moves indeed.
ah methanol, remember tryning to park up at thurrock one night loaded with that, and as the truck park was full, the advice from the car park staff was to park up on he slip road leading into the services!!, there would have been plenty of parking spaces if i had been ran into parked there me thinks…
baz i stand corrected mate… 
MADBAZ:
wirralpete:
think you still need trem cards if your carrying limited quantities.Not true limited quantities exemption is just that exempt
Spot-on MADBAZ. 
“Tremcards” are only required IF you’re carrying dangerous goods in packages over the relevant threshold, or driving a tanker that doesn’t have a “Clean” certificate.
Limited Quantities can be ignored, as they simply don’t count.
wirralpete:
baz i stand corrected mate…
Hi wirralpete,
Here’s a little something I wrote on the subject of Limited Quantities:
CLICK THIS LINK It’s a reply to MrFlibble about half way down that page.
I hope that helps.
brit pete:
shrek, you carry a antidote which if used quick enough
will reduce the effects, the loading firm should give you
a sample when you are carrying there goods,I carry
para tert buylphenol, and we get given a antidote,
which netrulizes the effects of the chemicals.
Hmmm… All very well, but i think i’d want a pair of Reeboks too!!!
dieseldave:
wirralpete:
baz i stand corrected mate…Hi wirralpete,
Here’s a little something I wrote on the subject of Limited Quantities:
I hope that helps.
OOOOOPS, double post. My fault.
DaiDap:
Hmmm… All very well, but i think i’d want a pair of Reeboks too!!!
Hi DaiDap, in this case, the Reeboks wouldn’t be much good to you, because you wouldn’t get very far once you’re splashed with that kind of ‘stuff.’ 
This is the reason why one uses all of the PPE and
that rubber suit is a bummer,SAYING THAT many
firms tend to do the loading and unloading themselves,
we have a customer and it takes them 5hours to unload
from booking into the controlroom to getting the keys and
papers returned,
Hmm … Do I go into all of the stories about when I was a Fireman?
We certainly got told the M6 Nurse story and were shown several old b/w photos and read the Home Office report to prove it’s truth!
I could tell you of the Senior Fire Brigade Officer who dipped his finger in a clear liquid which had been spilt on Old Durham Road, Low Fell to check it was in fact Phenol!
I did attend and help extinguish ( as the 3rd Appliance driver) the petrol tanker crash and subsequent fire at Newcastle Road in Sunderland 
There was also an incident at the British Rail Marshalling yards at Birtley, an acid leakage of some sort, or a simple dust explosion at Durham Chemicals which caused a mass evacuation of the surrounding area including ROF ordanence factory! 
BTW it was Cleveland Fire Brigade together with ICI Wilton & Billingham that came up with the HazChem information (inc ADR & UN id Number) as we now know it I believe!
s for clearing that up dd… if you go to the old haulage forum, click on the s.jones of aldrigde thread theres a lld story on there about taking paint to sweden. halfway into the story the driver is explainng the course he went on. up pops the nurse on the motorway tale, except this ones involving a doctor.
when i done ADR limited to cat 6.1/6.2 in late 2006 the instructor showed us the photo of the nurse on the overhead projector
Kenny1975:
Kiowan:
Even in 1969 there’d still likely be references available to the accident, considering it was so horrific and on a motorway. Just the obvious thing being it happened in 1969 on the M6 near the M62 junction, but the M62 wasn’t started until 1971.Even though the M62 wasnt built at the time people talking these days would still use it as a reference point so people would know where the incident happend.
I think older accidents and events are hard to come across, unless they were really serious. The diesel tanker crash on the m61 there is little mention of it on the internet.
Even the biggest crash on UK motorways involving the coach in 1985 gets little mention apart frorm a youtube video.
This video is distruburbing, not graphic but just what happend.
Some of the above accidents.
learn2live.co.uk/General/News/necessity.htm
I thought this post needed resurrecting.
Here are my two ADR (nearly) horror stories…
#1.
The first story relates to the ‘military’ so I have to be careful.
The military needed several thousand tonnes of various types of explosives moving from a base to the docks for loading onto a ship in preparation for a military exercise to be conducted in a foreign country.
Our job was to move the stuff as civilian contractors with unmarked (no orange boards) trucks in convoys of 10 artics at a time. We weren’t allowed to be present during the actual loading, so we dropped the trailers for tuggys to load and they’d later re-spot the trailers where we’d been told to leave them. The idea was that we didn’t know the contents until we opened the trailers at the docks. The paperwork was in sealed envelopes and soldiers were passengers in the front and rear trucks in each of the convoys.
After loading, each convoy headed to the marshalling area and the drivers had to go into a portakabin to receive a briefing and our sealed envelpoes. On this particular occasion, we’d got to the marshalling area and switched off our engines. I was walking towards the portakabin with another driver when we noticed a large amount of extremely smelly blue/black smoke coming from underneath the cab of one of the tractor units. Within seconds, there were soldiers and other drivers running for cover behind the earth mounds surrounding the marshalling area. 
The solution seemed quite simple to me, I just went back to my truck to fetch a spanner, then I disconnected the batteries on the faulty truck. The smoke stopped quite quickly after that. I reasoned that the problem was caused by a short circuit of some kind, so disconnecting the batteries solved the problem. We disconnected the susies, wound down the trailer legs and pulled the pin, then a tuggy towed the faulty tractor unit away and a substitute tractor and driver was brought from the pool of vehicles that had done the last run.
#2.
I was driving an artic tanker carrying about 34,000 liters of propane from Stanlow refinery to a gas storage depot in Llandudno. This was a regular run for me, and it was a routine job that I did three times a day on at least three days per week. On this occasion, I’d arrived at the depot and proceeded to the discharge point. I’d connected my earth bond cable to dissipate any static electricity, before commencing to connect my delivery hoses. Company policy dictated that I could connect my delivery hoses and get set for the delivery to commence. At that point, it was company policy to have me wait for a technician to be present to give permission for the unloading to commence.
After the technician had checked everything and opened the valves of the receiving tank, he told me to start my pump and open my last valve, which allows the propane to flow from my tank into the receiving tank. This all went by the book in a routine way. Until the job went wrong.
Once discharge is underway, the technician goes back to his normal duties, leaving me to monitor the pumping operation. After about 10 minutes of pumping, a shear coupling__**__ broke, resulting in a white fog of liquid propane squiting about 15’ straight up into the air.
Those who have done the ADR course know all about what might happen next, if there’s an ignition source anywhere nearby…
I was far more scared by this than the short-circuit in my first story, because there wasn’t much actual danger in that, but a propane leak of this size is a completely different story…
Let’s just say that I was on my toes so fast that Linford Christie wouldn’t have caught me.
As I ran, I pressed my ‘panic’ button, which is actually a radio ‘remote’ that’s designed to shut off the the truck engine and discharge valves from a safe distance. Fortunately, there were no ignition sources nearby, and the propane cloud dissipated safely.
Once it was safe to re-enter the unloading area, we discovered that the shear coupling hadn’t completely broken in two as it is designed to do. That’s why the leak was much larger than it should have been.
** A shear coupling is a safety feature consisting of two spring-loaded valves fitted in opposition to each other. The joint is designed such that the ends of both valves protrude from their respective pipe flanges, the flange joint is then bolted together forcing the valves to hold each other in the open position. The idea is that, if the vehicle were to be driven away with the delivery hoses still attached to the discharge point, this coupling breaks in two, the two valves both then snap shut, but with one valve in each piece of pipe there’s not supposed to be any serious leak if the joint breaks. The two valves are usually secured by three bolts that are calculated to be only just strong enough to hold the joint together. Imagine the shock on the technician’s face when he saw that only one bolt was holding the joint together, hence the huge leak.
I’m no technician or engineer, but methinks that the bolts were a bit too strong.
dieseldave:
gsm31:
Dieseldave should be able to clear up any doubt about the story.Hi gsm31, Only too happy to help clear this one up mate.
Here is a little extract copied and pasted directly from the Consortium ADR course:
The incident happened on a still foggy morning on the M6 North bound near to the junction with the M62. A tanker (36T) carrying Oleum (concentrated Sulphuric Acid) was in collision with a lorry carrying scaffolding. A scaffolding pole caused a gash in the tankers shell and a large quantity of Oleum leaked out onto the carriageway.
…the fumes from the Oleum were extremely dangerous and would render anyone inhaling them unconscious almost immediately. The Nurse however obviously thought the driver wanted help and waded into the Oleum (which looks like clear water) she then became unconscious as she inhaled the fumes and fell into the Oleum which then attacked her body as the photograph shows.
As well as the Consortium’s ADR course, there are other approved ADR courses such as: Chemfreight, LRT and Friendberry.
ADR providers can only use the ADR course that they have bought, otherwise they must write their own and submit it for approval. The reason that not all of you will get to see the photo of what was left of the nurse is that the photo isn’t published on the internet, and IIRC was only included in the Consortium course by permission.
The photo is an old B&W one and is therefore quite grainy, but it is clear that the oleum claimed the nurse’s arms and legs. IMHO, further description is far too gory for a family show like this and would serve no useful purpose. I’ll also say that quite a lot more than “just the nurse’s badge” was found. The one good thing that came from this incident was that it focused the government’s minds and caused the system for marking UK tankers with 3 large hazard warning panels to be devised.
Trivia fact: Showing a plain orange coloured plate on the front of a UK tanker wasn’t required until the mid 90s.
I too was told about the gold rings, false teeth and belt buckle. I now know this didn’t happen.
There was some confusion and the “myth” has been spread over the years. I am now going to refute that myth.
The picture of the nurse cannot & will not be shown, and you would not want to see it on a family forum.
Even the “myth & misinformation” spread throughout the police force.
Until Now
I just thought this thread had lost it’s momentum…
Abit more concerning the above. Click the link and scroll to page four…
live.unece.org/trans/danger/publ … entsE.html
see section 3 for a list of nasty stuff.
I work through agencies who might pay an extra £1 per hour for adr work. As I would have to pay for the adr myself and there isn,t much adr agecy work I decided not to do it. Maybe Iwill now that it counts towards dcpc.
I have often wondered on the cosequence of a chemical reaction accident, eg petrol or hydrogen load hitting 30t of liquid oxygen. I am told that the road would probably not be closed…or even there.
live.unece.org/trans/
danger/publi/adr/adr2007/07ContentsE.html
