[GovernmentShrinker]

A number of years ago, I was sound asleep in White Plains, NY when a propane tanker with a dozing driver hit the supports in an underpass. The thing took off like missile, travelling half a mile and burning down an entire block of houses where it landed. The original explosion sounded like a huge bomb, which woke people for miles around.

I think the underpasses and bridges are common places for these major accidents because of the lack of clear space on the sides. If a tanker drifts off course on the main road, it will most likely just end up rolling in the grass and waking up the driver; maybe it'll overturn, but nothing to make headlines. But when the tanker drifts off the side of a bridge, or into an underpass' support columns, the headline generating explosion is virtually guaranteed.

[LizardQueen]

There was one about a year or two ago in the Atlanta area that torched an overpass and closed down both that section of the loop road around Atlanta and the interstate it went over. Sorry, i don't remember the route numbers - I was there on a business trip and got massively lost trying to find my way to where I was going without the use of the highway (maybe it was 400?).

I talked to the people I was visiting a few months later and the roads had just reopened. Apparently the heat from the tanker fire destabilized the bridging and they pretty much had to rebuild the overpass.

LQ

[freedox]

"I think the underpasses and bridges are common places for these major accidents because of the lack of clear space on the sides."

I was taught (by two of the most experienced drivers I know) that any large object close to the side of the road tends to create a visual draw.......and unless a driver is alert, it can easily result in the driver inadvertently steering toward it. That's why I'm extra cautious whenever I pass a stalled car or an overpass support column.......and if I have to pull off of the highway myself, I try to make sure I get as far off the side of the road as possible.

(Just a sideline driving tip.......doesn't sound like it was a factor in this accident.)