In case you happen to be among those smoking-addicted
drivers who cannot refrain from lighting a cigarette when behind the wheel, at
least make sure there are no flammable objects around you first. There are
number of accidents, when car explosion, caused by a lighted cigarette, caused
health injuries and even death of the driver or passengers of the vehicle. Note
that the causes might be as quite obvious, as not so, when the explosion has
been originated by the seemingly innocent household substances. Here is the
list of the recent accidents, appeared in a press, when car explosion has been
originated from the cigarette.
Gas
Gas fumes and a lit cigarette caused an explosion that sent
a 27-year-old man to the hospital August 8, 2012 in Twin Falls, ID. The owner
of the vehicle admitted the explosion started after he entered the car and lit
a cigarette. The car had recently undergone work for a gas leak, and that was
probably has not taken care of completely during the maintenance service.
November 3, 2008, a driver has had a lucky escape after his
liquid gas powered car exploded into a fireball when he lit a cigarette while
at the wheel. Peter Tidbury's Peugeot 607 was badly damaged in the explosion,
with door panels blown out and pieces of windscreen hurled 50ft. Mr. Tidbury, 55,
from South-East London, escaped with minor burns after the fireball singed his
face, hands and legs and melted the lining of his jacket. It is thought that a
leak in the pipe from the filler to the fuel tank allowed gas to seep into the
car where it was ignited by the cigarette.
Oxygen
February 29, 2012, an 82-year-old homeless man, Stanley
Kowalski, with emphysema, accidentally caused a car explosion when a cigarette
he was smoking ignited gas from a leaking oxygen tank inside his vehicle. Four
people were injured in the blast in Hackensack, New Jersey. The homeless man
suffered superficial injuries while two police officers and Fire Department Lt
Stephen Lindner had minor injuries. The man used about a tank of oxygen a day
and was storing them and his other possessions in his car, which he seemed to
be living in. There were seven tanks in total in the car. Witnesses say the
three consecutive explosions were the force of projectile missiles. The
homeless man told officials he thought he had turned off the tank after using
it when he decided to smoke a cigarette. All that was left of the car - a 1987
Mercury Grand Marquis - was a charred frame.
This year, February 2013, an elderly Indianapolis couple was
killed in their car after a passenger lit a cigarette near a medical oxygen
tank causing it to explode. Ronnie Joe Pratt and his wife, Deborah, both 62,
died Sunday after their 1999 Chrysler Concorde burst into flames on Interstate
70 near Centerville, Ind. Thomas Barnham II was driving the duo, and another
passenger, Tina Brooks, when the incident occurred. Witnesses dragged Barnham
and Brooks out of the blaze before the vehicle exploded again, but it was too
late for the husband and wife who were trapped inside. Wayne County Sheriff
Jeff Cappa said two oxygen cylinders were in the car and that one of the
survivors said the vehicle caught fire after a cigarette was lit.
Cleaning Products
March 6, 2009, a female driver from Memphis failed to pay
attention to the flammable objects in her car and she lighted a cigarette that
made the vehicle explode. The driver was a cleaning woman carrying flammable
cleaning products in the vehicle. Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin
explained that the woman was sitting in the car when she lit a cigarette and
caused "a vapor-type flash." Witnesses at the scene heard "a
loud boom" that made all the vehicle's windows explode. Following the
unfortunate incident, the woman suffered first- and second-degree burns on her
face, arms and neck.
Hair Bleach
March 25, 2010, a 19-year Jenny Mitchell who worked as a mobile stylist with the Sleek and Chic salon was driving to
her parent's house in her silver Mini
Cooper when she decided to light up a cigarette. Unfortunately, the
whole car was filled with fumes from a leaking bottle of hair bleach in her
passenger foot-well The flame from the lighter/cigarette with the fumes and air
from small opening from the car window caused an explosion as the as the whole
car got engulfed in flames resulting in Jenny's death. It is believed the
leaking bottle contained chemical hydrogen peroxide which is used for hair
bleaching.
Summary
Car explosions and fires add the real meaning to the
statement that smoking can be deadly. Not sometime in the future from the
slowly but steadily deteriorated health, but tomorrow when you lit your
cigarette on your way to the office. It can be deadly to yourself, to your
passengers, and to those who you share the road with. Sometimes, the death toll
might be even much higher. In Texas City, Texas, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation blamed a cigarette for probably igniting an ammonia nitrate
explosion in 1947, causing the worst industrial disaster death toll and fire
disasters in U.S. history. The explosion caused nearly 600 deaths, 380
hospitalizations longer than two months, 4,100 casualties, and damage to more
than 90 percent of the city's buildings at a cost of more than $4 billion. In
France, a single lighted cigarette thrown from a moving car in 1999 ignited a
fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel, a major thoroughfare between France and Italy,
causing 39 deaths and over $1 billion in losses to the region.
What is the risk? The risk is probably quite low. Taking in
account, that an explosion requires both a fuel and an oxidizer, there should
be special conditions to cause the explosion –sensitive medium. The gasoline definitely
contains fuel, but does not contain oxidizer. Therefore, gasoline cannot
explode by itself. However, a mixture of gasoline and oxygen has all the
capabilities to explode. Yes, once you get a nice mixture of gasoline and air,
you've got all of the ingredients for a fuel-air bomb. It requires only to ignite the process, and
the cigarette, or dropped Zippo lighter, for example, can serve that. Yes, the
risk is relatively low, but do you really wish to take it?
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