Wednesday, March 11, 2015

THE ROLLOVER RISKS OF TANKER TRUCKS: FUEL TANKER DRIVER SWERVED TO AVOID CAR CRASH BEFORE OVERTURNING ON I-95 IN MARYLAND.









MARCH 10, 2015

LAUREL, MARYLAND. (WJLA)

Investigators said a fuel tanker driver was trying to avoid a collision in front of him caused by a car abruptly crossing two lanes when his rig overturned Tuesday along southbound Interstate 95, about 5 miles north of the Capital Beltway in Maryland.  

As we first noted so in our web pages, this is one of the typical causes of tanker truck rollovers or flips.  The drivers must avoid sudden avoid evasive maneuvers as they lead to accidents.  Of course the drivers are between a rock and a hard place:  should they collide with the car ahead of them that suddenly cut them off or should rollover and crash?  One of the solutions of course is to travel at a slower speed.  It is better to arrive later at your destination than to cause these accidents and delays that will in fact make you be late, very late.

Maryland State Police troopers charged the driver of that car, 23-year-old Christopher Rhodes of Laurel, with following too closely, unsafe lane change, failure to control speed to avoid a collision, and reckless driving contributing to a collision.

But Rhodes told ABC7 News that he was not the person who really caused the accident. He said a white van hit him from behind as he tried to merge from state Route 198 onto I-95 south. Rhodes said that led to the chain reaction.

"A vehicle behind me hit me and forced me into the lane that I was trying to merge into, which caused me to hit the vehicle that I hit, and which caused everything else afterwards,” Rhodes said. So I wasn't abruptly changing lanes, I got hit and pushed into the lane. But the person that hit me kept going, and I never got their license plate.”

The bio-diesel fuel tanker overturned Tuesday morning south of Route 198 near Laurel. NewsChopper 7 showed aerial views about 10:30 a.m. of the tanker lying across four lanes and pushing into jersey barrier walls along the median.
Prince George's County fire officials said two people, including the tanker driver, were evaluated, but didn't need to be taken to a hospital.

It took crews several hours to hoist the overturned tanker upright and tow it away, before turning attention to the clean up of about 700 gallons of spilled fuel on the highway. Some lanes of southbound I-95 finally reopened for the evening rush hour after traffic was snarled much of the day and motorists were forced to divert off at Route 198.

The tanker involved in the accident was owned by Baltimore-based Petro Express. A company representative told ABC7 News that the driver, identified by police as 32-year-old William Gorman of Westminster, had over a decade of experience.

A federal database showed no prior accidents with serious injuries or fatalities involving Petro Express.