Another Survival Situation

The I-10 East & West bound traffic lanes have just been reopened after being closed for 12-13 hours. The accident involved a car and an 18 wheeled tanker (loaded with Tuolene). This accident occurred on the 18 mile bridge known as the "Atchafalaya Freeway". This is not the first serious accident on this bridge.

You're on the bridge and traffic comes to a halt. You can't see what's going on up ahead and none of the drivers around you know either, unless you're near someone who has a CB radio. Regardless of whether you know what has stopped you, you're on a bridge and can't turn around, can't back up, and can't go forward.

Hopefully, you have a BoB with food and water. It gets VERY hot and humid in South Louisiana during the month of July!

Happened in Chicago a couple years ago-a semi full of hog scraps tipped over and spread lard over 4 lanes of northbound limited access highway. Apparently the hazmat scenarios hadn't included strategies for coping with wholesale quantities of chitterlings in the roadway, especially on a warm summer day. Frictionless, bad-smelling, and really hard to get off your shoes. First responders looked like hogs on ice trying to traverse the asphalt griddle.

In this case, it was possible to abandon the vehicle, walk to convenience store, buy a six-pack, and return to the vehicle to watch the show. The bridge element makes your picture pretty tricky, as does the toluene exposure piece. I believe that it is absorbed thru the skin and not excreted, posing short and long term health risks.

I agree that your BOB should be in your vehicle if you are.

the real threat is the humidity + the heat

Make sure you have plenty of empty water bottles ready!

really though, I have no idea what I would do. I guess just wait it out.

Also can someone explain what Tuolene is?

Touline is "paint thinner", It's one of the least dangerous HazMats that are regularly transported on the highways, railroads, and waterways.

Better than empty bottles, 'specially for the ladies, is the Travel John. We discovered then years ago, my wife has filled a jillion of them in the middle of the night while tent camping. Small, not all that expensive, and non-spill...

I think he meant "Toluene". It is an organic solvent similar to benzene but having a methyl (-CH3) group stuck to it. Fairly nasty stuff but very important to industry.

-Blast

Thanks for the correction, Blast. That is what I meant.

Toluene, a cousin of methalethelbadstuff. Hurts to breath it, trust me on this...

"methylethylbadstuff" is priceless. Thanks for sharing it. ER's used to keep a pint or so of toluene on the shelf. Some urologists used to use it to cauterize open areas on...places that interest urologists. Grew less popular as the hazmat aspects of toluene got more press. Toluene can be very amusing in its nitrated forms-TriNitroToluene among them.

"Make sure you have plenty of empty water bottles ready!"

Nope! Make sure you have plenty of FULL water bottles ready. Drink the contents of a bottle, then fill it. Repeat.

Dual duty.

Sue

Actually, we always called it methylethylbads**T, but I cleaned it up for here...

I have been saved more than once by an empty bottle found on the shoulder of I-5 (I-5 in CA is a pigsty). Females would need a Lady J tho. And a little bitty 12 oz bottle isn't big enough...

That's also why a large mouth soft drink cup is handy to have laying around your car's cockpit!!!!!

That's what we use for a trash can, stuck in a cup holder in the back seat...

And its big brother, MEOMG - Methyl Ethyl OOOOHHH MY GAWD.
Makes MEBS look like high school chemistry.