Truckload Of Shotgun Primers Explodes

[billt460]

A truckload of shotshell primers exploded at the Winchester plant in East Alton, Illinois last month. The driver was killed. Not much left of the semi.

Truck driver killed in explosion at Illinois ammunition plant

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is investigating the death of a truck driver at an ammunition plant in Madison County, Illinois, on Thursday.

cdllife.com

 

[Pablo]

That's horrible. I am simply stunned looking at the truck frame

 

[joekingcorvette]

Wowser's that's not good.

 

[oldcodger]

In my 50 years of being a reloader and reading every thing I could on pimer handling this is the first large scale accident I have ever heard of. I remember some powder factories exploding but never primer facilities.

 

[Trav]

That is horrific, that poor guy was only a few years away for calling it a day for retirement.

 

[skyactiv]

That is a yard spotter truck, specifically a Kalmar Ottawa T2. I work on them at UPS. I can tell the cab tilted over in the explosion. The cab latch obviously didn't hold.

 

[thastinger]

Guess this means Winchester will file for bankruptcy and Black Rock will buy them too...then they will own it all.

 

[skyactiv]

One potentially fatal mistake a driver could make is having the 5th wheel boom too high and poking the nose of the trailer. If a pallet of primers was against the nose wall and the driver slammed into the trailer with the 5th wheel too high, it could be like taking a sledge hammer to the primers. An inspection will reveal if that happened.

 

[billt460]

In my 50 years of being a reloader and reading every thing I could on pimer handling this is the first large scale accident I have ever heard of. I remember some powder factories exploding but never primer facilities.

I've never heard of this large of a primer accident either. I know there have been a few small detonations of primer compound at a few .22 rimfire manufacturing plants. But nothing this large.

I know that Hodgdon had a few bad explosions at a few of their Pyrodex plants years back. Some people were killed. But nothing like this anywhere involving primers. They're lucky they only lost one by the size of that explosion.

 

[FordFETruck]

That is a yard spotter truck, specifically a Kalmar Ottawa T2. I work on them at UPS. I can tell the cab tilted over in the explosion. The cab latch obviously didn't hold.

Yeah, the cabs don't tilt nowhere near that far forward at full lift. Must have been like putting the cab in a slingshot.

 

[CanAmAndMore]

May you Rest In Peace driver!