What are Trucks Hauling?

Jennifer Moore

Contributor

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Do you know what tractor-trailers are hauling on our roadways? Truckers haul tons of munitions on our nation's highways everyday. How is a driver to know that a truck could be carrying dangerous materials? Most of the time your only clue is an orange placard on the trailer stating "explosives." That is why it is so important that all of us give truckers the room they need on the road. For example, when a driver changes lane, he or she should give a trucker plenty of room. Drivers should also avoid abrupt stops in the path of a trucker.

Over a five-month period from October 2006 to February 2007, about 30 collisions involved trucks hauling munitions. These wrecks are very dangerous given the probability of fire. For example, in 2005:

a truck operated by R&R Trucking carrying 38,000 pounds of mining explosives overturned near Provo, Utah, because the driver was going too fast on a mountain road. The truck caught fire and burned for 17 minutes before detonating, creating a crater 70 feet wide and 30 feet deep in the two-lane road. The blast damaged a nearby railroad line, started numerous wildfires and injured about 20 people, none seriously.

Drivers must be aware of trucks on the highway.

Every week, tractor-trailer trucks loaded with tons of bullets, bombs, rockets and plastic explosives rumble down Hampton Roads' busiest thoroughfares alongside a largely unsuspecting public.

Each shipment is different. Some days the trucks carry explosives powerful enough to level a building, while other times the loads are portable missiles such as the Javelin, an anti-tank weapon lethal enough to take down an aircraft.

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Since 2003 when the Iraq war began, private trucking companies have delivered more than 30,800 tons of conventional munitions to military bases in Hampton Roads, according to the U.S. Army's Joint Munitions Command. The command oversees the production, storage and shipment of arms, ammunition and explosives to all service branches nationwide, from 500-pound bombs to rifle rounds.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Tractor-trailer accidents.