The cargo ship, MV Dali, was carrying 764 tons of hazardous materials when it crashed into the Baltimore Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, a top US official has said.
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Nothing out of the ordinary. It may even turn out to be a relatively small amount, compared to the average carried by all other ships.
I think it is humorous when you read about all these stores that this ship had “hazardous materials” on it. Like there are not hundreds of thousands of tankers going up and down our interstate highways every day with hazardous materials.
My father was a long haul trucker driver that specialized in moving hazardous materials(chemicals) in Stainless Steel tankers. Over his career he hauled blue indigo dye, rocket propellant, jet fuel, caustics, acids, Palmalive dish detergent, sugar and almost anything else that gets shipped in a tanker.
The only thing that he was not licensed to haul was nuclear waste. You needed a perfect driving record and a special license for that.
You’re right. “Hazardous” includes a huge spectrum of “hazards,” many of which are pretty innocuous. Your car has 150 lbs. of hazardous material in the gas tank.
Plus, only a small number of 9000 onboard TEU’s (containers) were damaged.