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Sep 19, 2008

Chunnel fire * France - Cause still as dark as the tunnel itself

What happened in the Channel Tunnel?

Calais,France -The International Herald Tribune, by Caroline Brothers -September 18, 2008: -- A week after fire transformed one of Europe's most important transport arteries into a closed incinerator that destroyed a freight train and all 27 trucks on board, French and British investigators and the tunnel's operator have provided little insight into how it all occurred... Why, and where exactly, did the fire break out? What caused it? Did truck drivers who smashed their way out of the train with a hammer need to do so? And when will full service be restored, ending daily disruption for thousands of passengers and tons of cargo?... Not even officials of Eurotunnel, the company that operates the tunnel, have been given access to the actual accident site, 11 kilometers, or 7 miles, from the tunnel's exit on the French side, while French police and transport investigators, observed by the British police, carry out separate inquiries... The French land transport accident bureau is taking the lead in the investigation into the incident, said a spokesman for the British Secretariat to the Channel Tunnel Safety Authority... Although French officials have given no details about the cause of the fire, Transportation Minister Dominique Bussereau said last week that it "likely resembles something accidental," without elaborating... Eurotunnel's chief executive, Jacques Gounon, said he had no reason to believe the fire could have been "criminal" ...

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Oct 19, 2007

TUNNEL ACCIDENT * USA - Caltrans reconsiders speed limit near I-5 crash

Caltrans calls for a review of the 55-mph limit in the tunnel near Santa Clarita where Friday's 31-vehicle wreck occurred

Los Angeles,CAL,USA -Los Angeles Times, by Matt Lait -October 18, 2007: -- In the aftermath of last week's deadly collision on Interstate 5 near Santa Clarita, a top Caltrans official on Wednesday confirmed that the speed limit in the area where the fiery pileup occurred was raised several years ago, and transportation authorities are now trying to determine whether that decision was appropriate... Douglas Failing, Caltrans district director for Los Angeles and Ventura counties, said he has asked his staff to fully investigate the reasons behind the speed limit changes in that area. He also said speeds that were appropriate when the freeway was built may not be right for modern-day trucks, which are much longer and heavier than they were 30 years ago... The cause of the pileup remains under investigation... (Photo by Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times .October 13, 2007 - STILL BURNING: An L.A. County firefighter approaches burning wreckage Saturday. By midmorning most of the flames had been extinguished)

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Oct 17, 2007

TUNNEL ACCIDENT * USA - I-5 disaster may have started outside tunnel

Sources say the initial incident apparently involved a truck that was already about a third of a mile beyond the passageway. After several minutes, slowing traffic led to a chain-reaction pileup

Los Angeles,CAL,USA -The Los Angeles Times, by Scott Glover and Matt Lait -October 17, 2007: -- The chain-reaction crash on Interstate 5 that left three people dead and damaged a vital portion of the north-south artery late Friday was apparently set in motion when a trucker hauling a load of coffee beans and other goods emerged from a tunnel and lost control of his vehicle on wet pavement, slamming into a guardrail, sources with knowledge of the investigation said Tuesday... The truck came to rest about a third of a mile south of the tunnel. The force of the crash, which occurred shortly before 11 p.m., caused the truck's engine block to fly over the guardrail and into the northbound freeway lanes. Other debris from the big rig littered the southbound lanes... (Photo by Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times - AT THE SCENE: A Los Angeles County firefighter walks toward burning wreckage in the truck route tunnel on southbound Interstate 5)

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Oct 15, 2007

Accident * USA - Tough Commute Anticipated After Pileup

Investigators determined that 28 commercial vehicles — including big rigs — and one passenger vehicle were involved in the crash 30 miles north of Los Angeles

Santa Clarita,CAL,USA -AP, by MICHAEL R. BLOOD -14 Oct 2007: -- With the work week fast approaching, authorities scrambled Sunday to find ways to move traffic around a major artery out of Los Angeles that was shut down by a fiery interstate tunnel pileup... Investigators determined that 28 commercial vehicles — including big rigs — and one passenger vehicle were involved in the crash 30 miles north of Los Angeles that killed two men and an infant and injured at least 10 people, said Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief John Tripp... The fire spread from vehicle to vehicle, sent flames shooting nearly 100 feet in the air outside the tunnel and reached temperatures as high as 1,400 degrees...

The tunnel is a truck bypass that runs beneath eight lanes of I-5, the main West Coast interstate, linking Mexico and Canada. It is also a major route from Los Angeles to the city's northern suburbs... The southbound lanes of I-5 were closed for 2 1/2 miles; the northbound side was closed for about a mile... Warren Stanley, California Highway Patrol assistant chief, refused to speculate on the cause of the crash. He did not know when findings would be released... The pileup in the southbound truck tunnel began about 11 p.m. Friday. According to early reports, two big rigs collided on the rain-slickened highway... The tunnel, built in the 1970s, and its mix of curves and darkness has long been regarded by truckers as one of the most dangerous areas of the freeway... The road would have to be closed two weeks or longer in order for it to seriously hurt the economy, although companies that sell perishable items may suffer during shorter delays, he said... (Photo above - by Gus Ruelas/AP - Interstate 5 freeway is closed in both directions at the Newhall Pass as truck route tunnel still smolders after a 15-truck pileup on the rain-slicked Golden State Freeway in northern Los Angeles County that left 10 people injured and one missing in Santa Clarita, Calif, Friday, Oct. 12, 2007 - Photo below , by Ric Francis/AP - Structural engineers with the California Dept. of Transportation examine the damaged walls of a freeway tunnel north of Los Angeles Sunday, Oct. 14, 2007, in Santa Clarita, Calif., where a fiery pileup killed three people and injured at least ten others. The crash late Friday involved five to six big rigs and several passenger cars and sent people fleeing for their lives from the flaming tunnel)

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Apr 2, 2007

Tunnel Accidents * Swiss - Focus on trucks halves

Florence,Italy -The Age (Melbourne,Victoria,Aust), by Peter Munro -April 1, 2007: -- On a stark stone plaque at the mouth of the Gotthard Tunnel are the names of 11 people killed after a head-on crash between two trucks sparked a raging inferno that burned through the day and night... People died in their cars as toxic fumes and flames rushed along the 17-kilometre Swiss tunnel in October 2001. As with last week's Burnley Tunnel blaze, the fire was as hot as 1000 degrees, reducing vehicles to molten metal. In Europe, the Gotthard tragedy spurred authorities to set strict safety standards for road tunnels. And, as similar calls are made in Australia, the experience overseas shows one way forward to fewer fatalities... Reinhard Rack, an Austrian member of the European Parliament, was the force behind the European Union's mandatory safety standards, which came into force last May. Among those measures are requirements that busy road tunnels of more than 500 metres in length install emergency evacuation stations every 150 metres, automatic fire detection systems and ventilation shafts that can extract fumes and smoke at the core of a fire...

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