Tanker truck explosion in Bologna, Italy - video

**Jon** · Aug 7, 2018, 10:39 AM

A tanker truck carrying flammable gas exploded after a crash yesterday in Bologna, Italy. 2-3 dead, dozens injured. This is probably the best video circulating. 0:29 - is that a BLEVE -- Boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion?

Previously:

Combustible wood dust explosion safety video
NHRA Funny Car engine explosion
Steel mill wet charge explosion - video
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...215#post101010

**bruce.desertrat** · Aug 7, 2018, 06:19 PM

Kinds looks like one. Thankfully it does look like they were able to get most of the folks out of the way before it blew.

**hemmjo** · Aug 7, 2018, 07:20 PM

At 27 seconds the 2 white box trucks are still in view, at 28 seconds the trucks are gone and the thing blows. But there seems to be some footage missing you see screen "blink" as evidence of editing between 27 and 28 seconds. Scary stuff!!!

**Ralphxyz** · Aug 7, 2018, 07:27 PM

obviously the traffic was stopped in that lane the driver was probable texting.

**Frank S** · Aug 7, 2018, 08:43 PM

The driver had a full kilometer to get slowed down or change lanes. I didn't notice any evidence that he even made an attempt to reduce his speed or change lanes.
Complete lack of attention to the job at hand.

**12bolts** · Aug 8, 2018, 04:46 AM

Originally Posted by Frank S

The driver had a full kilometer to get slowed down or change lanes. I didn't notice any evidence that he even made an attempt to reduce his speed or change lanes.
Complete lack of attention to the job at hand.

Whilst I agree with the main points of your post Frank, and certainly the driver of the bullet was in the wrong, he certainly didnt have a full km to slow down or change lanes.

**Frank S** · Aug 8, 2018, 11:11 AM

Originally Posted by 12bolts

Whilst I agree with the main points of your post Frank, and certainly the driver of the bullet was in the wrong, he certainly didnt have a full km to slow down or change lanes.

Stating a full Km may be a bit of an over statement I'll admit, but the traffic had already nearly stopped before the tanker even came into view it only appeared to travel about 2 possibly 2 stripes from the time he entered the video until the time of impact. I counted 22 possibly 23 white stripes from far left to impact zone judging by the length of the blue lorry on the left side which would be approximately 18 meters in length keeping with the EU standard length laws stopping the video at 16, it shows that the stripes would be near to a 5 x 8 length and space 2 stripes 1 space 18 meters, 22/23 or approx 300 meters. His entering speed looked to be around 80 KMH traffic had most probably been slowing 5 to 10 seconds prior to his coming on the scene so add another 100 to 100 meters. giving him ample time to react and avoid what happened . Notice the 2 ttls behind him managed to stop and it looked like just as the flames started to erupt the 1 nearest the tanker had begun to reverse I can't say about how long the gap was in the video but if they had reversed completely out of frame then it must have been near a full minute.
This would be in keeping the approximate amount of time it could have taken for the fire to reach high enough intensity to cause the contents in the tanker to explode. depending on structural integrity of the tank and volatility of the contents.
No matter how I or we speculate about the accident it was totally avoidable. Clear day good visibility dry road surface plenty of distance from time of entering the video frames to point of impact.

**PJs** · Aug 8, 2018, 01:31 PM

Originally Posted by hemmjo

At 27 seconds the 2 white box trucks are still in view, at 28 seconds the trucks are gone and the thing blows. But there seems to be some footage missing you see screen "blink" as evidence of editing between 27 and 28 seconds. Scary stuff!!!

Saw this last night on the news. Pretty Horrific and appears to be cascading explosions and likely a Bleve as Jon points out. One thing to keep in mind is that normal (NTSC) video is shot at 29.97 frames/sec. which means there are ~30 frames between 27-28 seconds. Likely this was shot from a traffic cam as H.264 (compressed) and likely a different frame rate (maybe 24), then reposted for web with more compression, so there will most likely be lost frames. However...

What was interesting to me is there appears to be another tanker in front of the stopped box truck and just as the second tanker plows (inexplicably) into the stopped box truck a small explosion happens at the right rear of the plowing tanker and as everything collapses and the second box truck hit it, the flame and smoke starts to billow from the front box truck. My hit is the front tanker went off then the crushed box truck (or visa versa) then the back tanker with the horrific explosion and the hi-density of the volatile smoke. The Zoom-In starts at 28 when all the smoke is billowing but an anomaly I see is the car in the fast lane on the other side of the center rail. At 27 there are 4 cars on the on ramp pulling over as the flames start and no sign of them in 28 with the other cars.

This is some compilation put together by news media or a re-post by a creative editor, imho. Here is one on the Sun that shows more cars, pre-explosion. Further down the page you can see how big the hole is on the freeway, collapsing the upper deck it appears. Also the death toll is down to one...That is amazing.

Just my thoughts.

PJ