It’s not like he was carrying something extremely flammable.
Redditor /u/PattyD14 could’ve possibly witnessed a freeway explosion of biblical proportions if this bonehead propane delivery truck driver didn’t pull off his last minute maneuver successfully.
They uploaded dashcam footage to the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit earlier yesterday (May 2, 2023) showing a Blue Rhino Propane delivery truck driver travelling on I-90 in Albany New York accidentally take the 6A exit to go 787 North or South.
Instead of safely taking the exit and re-routing, the driver decides to hop back onto I-90 East by driving through the painted gore point, missing the metal median barrier by what looks like inches.
The thread is linked here, a copy of the video is posted below and there’s a copy/ mirror linked here.
As mentioned, the accident happened on I-90 in Albany at the 6A exit (link to the exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
Embed from Getty ImagesI don’t have any figures of how much these trucks fully loaded can weigh but in comparison, propane bobtail trucks, the ones with one large cylinder (like a tiny cement mixer) can weigh upwards of 33,000 pounds fully loaded, and these delivery trucks are not far off.
While these delivery trucks carrying hundreds of smaller gas cylinders are presumably a little safer to transport, regardless, the last thing you want to do driving anything that heavy is to make jerky, last minute maneuvers.
As the video shows, the driver probably didn’t mean to stay on that exit only lane.
Nobody’s perfect and mistakes happen, but changing lane like that, in the middle of a painted gore point, and with traffic on the road, is risky to say the least.
“That was two seconds away from being a Micheal Bay movie,” /u/_jump_yossarian commented.
“If only there were like two signs that said that lane was exiting. Oh wait, there was. Distracted driving to go with their dangerous driving?” /u/EV_antics sarcastically pointed out.
“Blue Rhino. Wouldn’t have been a big explosion, just lots of little ones,” /u/KindAwareness3073 replied.
While propane delivery truck explosions don’t often show up in the news, they do more often than you’d think.
According to KMVT 11, a propane delivery truck collided with a van near Rupert Idaho earlier this year (Feb 11, 2023) resulting in a fire. Although no one was hurt, locals within a mile had to be evacuated before local police and emergency services gave the all clear that all the propane safely burned off.
And this infamous, viral video from Russia popped up nine years ago showing a delivery truck carrying what looks like loosely secured tanks of propane crashing and immediately catching fire.
Although it didn’t all go up in one big kaboom, it posed a seriously dangerous situation for innocent motorists and responding emergency services.
Driving safely is everyone’s responsibility and for these delivery drivers, especially those carrying hazardous material, even more so.
Hopefully that driver’s code brown maneuver shook him up enough to where he learned his lesson, but, I doubt it.
