It was about my fourth year driving a tractor trailer. My job was delivering gasoline to gas stations. I really enjoyed that position. Although there were many safety protocols for hauling, and loading a Haz-Mat commodity, I picked it up so quickly, I eventually became complacent.
Complacent is a bad place to be hauling 8000 gallons of Gasoline.
We were expected to load, and deliver at least three loads per night. Starting at 3pm I could usually finish up around 1-2 am. I had just loaded my last Texaco load at the refinery in Linden.
It was a hot night in June, and as I pulled out of the refinery, I turned up the radio determined to make some time. Coming to a railroad crossing with Haz-Mat on board, it's the law that you come to a full stop and proceed with flashers on, never taking the truck out of gear. *see footnote*
I'll never forget coming to that railroad crossing. AC/DC was cranked up, and I was into it! I came to a stop, switched on the flashers, and clutched up like I was driving a sprint car. The truck lurched forward straining against the fully loaded tanker, and pulled hard about halfway across the tracks. It was then that I heard, and felt a loud boom from under the cab. I turned off the radio.
I could not get the truck in gear at that point. The shifter just would not move. I would find out later that I had broken an input shaft to the transmission. Now I am thinking "how do I tell my boss that I broke down right in the middle of a railroad crossing?"
I leave the flashers on, and shut the truck down. "Thankfully" I thought, "there is never any train traffic on this particular crossing." I pick up the phone to call my boss when the crossing intersection flashers come on. "You gotta be fucking kidding me!" I had never seen any train traffic through that intersection in the whole time I picked up at Texaco.
Here I am with a fully loaded gasoline tanker, stuck smack in the middle of a train intersection with a train coming. They teach you not to panic and remain calm, but when the gates came down smacking up against the side of my tanker, thats just what I did..
I threw my phone, and for some reason grabbed my lunch box. By now I could see the train lights off in the distance. I ran like I had never run before looking back hoping it was some kind of fucked up dream.
It wasn't.
By the time I was about 1/4 mile away from the intersection, my legs were jello. I looked back and could hear the brakes on the train being applied. The train moving at about 40mph, didn't even seem to slow down. It was a cargo train, but just then I realized.. "Someone is driving that train!" My heart sank and I thought I might puke. I watched the train impact my tanker.
I had seen the movies, I thought I knew what to expect. I didnt know shit. The train seemed to move right through my rig like it was nothing. The truck actually wrapped itself around the front of the train. At this point there was still no noise save for the screaming train brakes, and I thought for a moment that there might not be any explosion.
I was wrong.
The rest is a blur, but I can say it was bright as the sun when it went up, and hot as a furnace even as far away as I was. That explosion and fire was seen for miles and as the Haz-Mat teams from multiple counties responded to the location, All I could think was "My God! it's all my fault"
*footnote- from this point forward, the story is complete "fabrication" as in it never happened, and you got punk'd.
(yep I drove a tanker, but I was never complacent)
Complacent is a bad place to be hauling 8000 gallons of Gasoline.
We were expected to load, and deliver at least three loads per night. Starting at 3pm I could usually finish up around 1-2 am. I had just loaded my last Texaco load at the refinery in Linden.
It was a hot night in June, and as I pulled out of the refinery, I turned up the radio determined to make some time. Coming to a railroad crossing with Haz-Mat on board, it's the law that you come to a full stop and proceed with flashers on, never taking the truck out of gear. *see footnote*
I'll never forget coming to that railroad crossing. AC/DC was cranked up, and I was into it! I came to a stop, switched on the flashers, and clutched up like I was driving a sprint car. The truck lurched forward straining against the fully loaded tanker, and pulled hard about halfway across the tracks. It was then that I heard, and felt a loud boom from under the cab. I turned off the radio.
I could not get the truck in gear at that point. The shifter just would not move. I would find out later that I had broken an input shaft to the transmission. Now I am thinking "how do I tell my boss that I broke down right in the middle of a railroad crossing?"
I leave the flashers on, and shut the truck down. "Thankfully" I thought, "there is never any train traffic on this particular crossing." I pick up the phone to call my boss when the crossing intersection flashers come on. "You gotta be fucking kidding me!" I had never seen any train traffic through that intersection in the whole time I picked up at Texaco.
Here I am with a fully loaded gasoline tanker, stuck smack in the middle of a train intersection with a train coming. They teach you not to panic and remain calm, but when the gates came down smacking up against the side of my tanker, thats just what I did..
I threw my phone, and for some reason grabbed my lunch box. By now I could see the train lights off in the distance. I ran like I had never run before looking back hoping it was some kind of fucked up dream.
It wasn't.
By the time I was about 1/4 mile away from the intersection, my legs were jello. I looked back and could hear the brakes on the train being applied. The train moving at about 40mph, didn't even seem to slow down. It was a cargo train, but just then I realized.. "Someone is driving that train!" My heart sank and I thought I might puke. I watched the train impact my tanker.
I had seen the movies, I thought I knew what to expect. I didnt know shit. The train seemed to move right through my rig like it was nothing. The truck actually wrapped itself around the front of the train. At this point there was still no noise save for the screaming train brakes, and I thought for a moment that there might not be any explosion.
I was wrong.
The rest is a blur, but I can say it was bright as the sun when it went up, and hot as a furnace even as far away as I was. That explosion and fire was seen for miles and as the Haz-Mat teams from multiple counties responded to the location, All I could think was "My God! it's all my fault"
*footnote- from this point forward, the story is complete "fabrication" as in it never happened, and you got punk'd.
(yep I drove a tanker, but I was never complacent)
