FedEx truck explodes on I-270 in North St. Louis County

KMOX Radio | October 29, 2002

[Oldeconomybuyer]

(KSDK) -- Part of Interstate 270 is shut down at 367, after a fire involving a Federal Express truck. Witnesses at the scene say the tractor trailer has been split in half. It's unclear what caused the accident, but there are reports of an explosion.

[undergroundwarrior]

APB put out for a 33 yr old male white, driving a Chevy Astro van. Approach with caution....NRA card carrying right wing homophobe.

[philetus]

Protect Trucks From Terrorists
October 24, 2002


After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the federal government and the aviation industry acted quickly to ensure that terrorists would not again use planes as deadly missiles.

Congress authorized billions of dollars to enhance airline security. But there has been no comparable effort to protect trucks from being hijacked and turned into land-based missiles or other weapons of mass destruction. Terrorists have used fuel trucks three times in attacking targets abroad this year.










One difficulty is the sheer number of rigs carrying dangerous cargo, such as fuel and toxic chemicals. Trucks haul nearly 800,000 shipments of hazardous materials daily in the United States. That includes 50,000 trips by gasoline tankers, some loaded with as much fuel as a Boeing 757.

Little has been done to protect the fleet. Too often, trucks are not locked. Drivers leave rigs idling when they break for a meal. Vehicles commonly are left unattended in unsecured areas.

One obvious answer is better training, but that will take time because there are 3.1 million licensed truck drivers. Technology also can play a role, but progress has been slow. The government is testing a satellite tracking system that could disable a rig if an unauthorized driver took the wheel. Another system would shut down the engine if the truck strayed from its approved course.

The Department of Transportation has been tardy in imposing new safety rules, which won't be ready for several months. Why the delay?

Guarding truckloads of dangerous cargo from terrorists must be a much higher priority, especially when the government concedes it has received taped al Qaeda warnings of planned attacks on America's economic lifeline, which likely would include transportation.

[MsLady]

I sure hope so. G-d be with him.

[Bobby777]

there's a FedEx depot near 270 and Olive there ... used to go there in 1994/1995 ... I wonder if the FedEx truck had just left that depot?

[OXENinFLA]

Unless they were carrying gas cannisters of some sort, this would pretty much have to be a bomb.

You can't carry gas cylinders in an enclosed truck.

[chilepepper]

Never select the free shipping when you order from

www.nitro4less.com

[MsLady]

Out of respect for G-d I never type out or write out His name on anything that will be thrown out or destroyed.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Or DU speculating that it was a GOP bomb to focus the MO Senate race on terrorism.

On a serious note, I bet the Feds are going over the manifest list of every sender and addressee of packages on that truck.

[Tony in Hawaii]

Fox is saying it was a double trailer, and the explosion happened in the first trailer.

Cab looks fine, except that the front axle looks like it's gone. Must have gone off the road at cruising speed, and "caught major air," as the kids say, before coming to a stop.

[philetus]

Truckers worry about terrorists using big rigs
Last Modified:
12:14 a.m. 10/28/2001

By Elliott Minor
The Associated Press

Trucker Perry McDaniel, of Mobile, Ala., flipped through hazardous materials placards on the back of his trailer at an Albany, Ga., truck stop. McDaniel, who is licensed to carry hazardous materials, can flip the placards to warn of various hazards--explosives, oxidizers, flammable materials and others. To reduce terrorist threats, he checks in with his company more often and uses stronger locks on cargo doors, he says.
ELLIOTT MINOR/The Associated Press
CORDELE, Ga. -- Waitress Gail Sanders keeps photos of suspected terrorists beneath the counter and scrutinizes every customer who enters her busy south Georgia truck stop.

"We look for these folks," said Sanders, pulling out her printout of the FBI's 22 most-wanted terrorists. "You keep your eyes open and listen."

She and many of the truckers who roll in to sip coffee and eat fried chicken have become obsessed with a fear that before Sept. 11 seemed remote -- that terrorists would use some of the nation's 1.5 million 18-wheelers as weapons.






Trucker Charlie Bell says many drivers have stopped routinely giving "Smokey Bear" warnings over their CB radios. They don't want to warn any terrorists who may be listening about state troopers spotted on the highway.

"If the terrorists are out there, we want them to be caught," said Bell, 62, of Madisonville, Ky. "Drivers are more cautious about what they say. You look to see who passes you."

The entire industry is in a heightened state of alert. The Department of Transportation, FBI and Environmental Protection Agency have urged companies that transport hazardous materials to be especially vigilant. Officials say at least one of the witnesses being sought in the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington was licensed to haul hazardous materials.

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta has proposed legislation to give the DOT more authority to stop and inspect trucks carrying hazardous materials, and some lawmakers have proposed criminal background checks for hazmat drivers.

Truckers themselves are taking steps to avoid having their rigs stolen or hijacked. The American Trucking Associations, the nation's leading trucking organization, has urged drivers to communicate regularly with dispatchers, to vary their routes to avoid being followed and to park near other trucks or at reputable truck stops so other truckers can help keep an eye out.

"I just watch the mirrors on both sides and see what's happening," said Fred Trutt, 63, of Portland, Ore., who makes transcontinental trips for Midwest Coast Transportation.

Schneider National, North America's largest trucking company, based in Green Bay, Wis., said it has stepped up security, but wouldn't say how, "to safeguard our customers, associates, equipment and facilities."

Schneider's orange trucks are among the hundreds of 18-wheelers that roll into the vast parking lot at the Travel Centers of America near Cordele each day.

The stop, located along Interstate 75 about 180 miles south of Atlanta, is a haven where truckers can fill up their rigs, shower, relax in a TV room and dine in the restaurant, where Sanders rushes around refilling coffee cups and serving stacks of pancakes.

Far from big cities or military bases that would be possible targets, the stop is nonetheless full of drivers and employees worried about terrorists.

"I watch where I park and who is beside me," said Bell, who drives for Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale, Ark. "If it is dark, you watch where you walk. We're using more padlocks (on the cargo doors) especially if you leave it overnight."

Many trucks are equipped with satellite systems that allow the companies to track trucks to within a couple of hundred feet. A truck going off course would arouse suspicion.

Truckers said they are getting more scrutiny from transportation officials at weigh stations, especially if they are carrying hazardous materials.

In New York, where workers are still sifting through the rubble of the World Trade Center, police have been checking documents and inventory on all vans and trucks entering Manhattan, a process that often slows traffic to a crawl.

Truck stops have also tightened security. Workers monitor parking lots more closely and they lock doors that used to be left unlocked, said Melvin DeBruhl, general manager of the Cordele truck stop.

At the Jack Rabbit Travel Center in Albany, Ga., trucker Perry L. McDaniel used his satellite system to check in with his company, Swift Transportation of Phoenix, Ariz. Since Sept. 11, he uses a stronger lock on the trailer doors and he checks in at every stop.

McDaniel, a 25-year-old licensed hazardous material driver from Mobile, Ala., flipped through warning placards on the back of his trailer -- explosive, poisonous, flammable, corrosive, radioactive.

"The thing that worries us most is our hazmat loads," he said. "You don't know if ... this placard could make you a target."

On the Net:

National Truck Stop Operators Association: http://www.natso.com

[Mo1]

Yep BOTH trailors are gone and blew up all over the place

The Cab of the truck looks ok

Not sure about a bomb .. but something did a hell of a job on this truck

[Sacajaweau]

Dear Ms:

There's a reality going on right now and the comments you refer to are "quite evident". We've been through a grueling month of terrorist tactics.

We've read day after day for the past two years of Palestinian tactics and we've been waiting, hoping and praying that it would end there and not begin here.

There is no one here who wishes harm to "good people". We're too good for that.

But we do not wish "good" to those who wish to harm us. For the sake of our children and our granchildren and the memory of those who fight and have fought to make us free, we continue to weed out these arrogant people whose aim is the destruction of the United States and its' allies.

We are not sheep. We are brave, strong, free, loving Americans.

Pray if you will, most of us do, but pray for the goodness of man to blossom forth not for the destructors of mankind.

[sweetliberty]

Oh God I pray you are wrong! I hope this is an isolated incident. I can't imagine a string of trucks blowing up on the road or planes exploding in the sky. It is just too horrible to contemplate. That said, I don't believe for a minute that this is an accident.

[demsux]

Bellfontaine Rd. exit is VERY close to the bridge crossing the Mississippi River.

[Desdemona]

I think I know where this is...eastern North County. I don't get up there very often.

Not too far from the 270 North bridge spanning the Mississippi.

[Think free or die]

Fox reported that the cab AND gas tank are intact. Both trailers destroyed. Also reported it's in northbound lane at Bellefontaine exit, near Illinois state line.

[philetus]

Ignore at your own peril...
Mexico's Trucks to have 'fast lane' access to America
By Staff Writer Brandy

President George W. Bush has asked that Mexico's trucking industry be granted access to every city in America with inspection taking place "at the point of origin in Mexico", to allow Mexico's trucks to travel past the border "in the fast lane. I want this border to be modern," Bush stated.

In a related story, Osama Bin Laden has purchased Mexitran Shipping from Drug Lord Blando Endoban for 8.3 billion dollars. The price is thought to be very low, since the Meskellin Cartel has used its' vast trucking empire to ship more than one hundred billion dollars a years' worth of drugs into what was the US 25 mile limit for Mexico's trucking industry. Reliable sources say that Bin Laden has arranged to continue Endobans' drug shipments in the same trucks he will use to transport his Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists across the border to towns and cities in the US. Mr. Bin Laden, who has named his new enterprise TerrorTrans, inc, stated that as a practical business policy TerrorTrans will sacrifice one truck in 10 for the purpose of blowing up buildings and achieving mass homicides in America.

Osama's publicity team released this photo of TerrorTrans' first shipment, in the "fast lane on the freeway", as suggested by El Presidente De La Estados Unidos.

Since it was inspected "at its' point of origin in Mexico" (TerrorTrans' freight yard), the truck flew by the border at an estimated 70 mph, saving Osama and the terrorists and the Drug Cartel hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribe money and time. Mexican border guards are highly concerned about the new policy, since it will take away their principle source of income, with all the bribe money going to the 'at the point of origin' police.

Diablo Comprares, head of publicity at Osamas' plush Tijuana headquarters, expressed his gratitude to President Bush
for enabling this "modern border system."

"Viva La Republica Del Norte!" said Comprares.
Brandy
Roosters Wire Service
May 6, 2002
OughtaBeNews.com

Smuggler BRAGS:
'I've Coyoteed'
800,000 Illegals Into US:
Border Patrol And Cops Take Bribes
Even Restaurants Participate For $$
When asked if any of the illegals might be
terrorists, he replied: "Who the hell knows?
Who the hell cares?"

[sweetliberty]

Have no fear Qoilla. I'm sure there will be FReepers posting pictures directly. The trailers are shredded!

[babyface00]

Yes, please post pics if you have them. It still hasn't made the news web sites (other than here, of course).