Posted on 09/10/2007 12:59:39 PM PDT by ElkGroveDan
PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico - A dynamite-laden truck exploded after colliding with another vehicle on a busy highway in northern Mexico's coal country, killing at least 34 people, including three reporters at the scene, state and federal officials said.
Authorities said the two vehicles crashed into each other Sunday evening, drawing a crowd of curious onlookers as well as a small army of police, soldiers, emergency officials and journalists.
Shortly after the crowd arrived, the wreckage caught fire, and the dynamite exploded, sending a ball of fire into the sky that consumed nearby cars and left a 10-by-40 foot crater in the concrete, said Maximo Alberto Neri Lopez, a federal police official.
He said more than 150 people were injured.
The force of the explosion blew out the windows of a passenger bus a quarter-mile away.
The dead included three newspaper reporters from the nearby city of Monclova, said Luis Horacio de Hoyos of the Coahuila state Attorney General's Office.
It was unclear if the explosive truck's driver was among the dead. Early reports said he might have fled.
Coahuila state has a large mining industry, most of it in coal.
The explosion raised further questions about the safety of Mexican trucks.
This weekend, Mexico began sending its first tractor-trailers across U.S. territory under a long-delayed, NAFTA-mandated program. Before, Mexican trucks were limited to 25-mile zone along the border.
Many in the U.S. fought the change, arguing that Mexican trucks are unsafe.
Randy Grider, editor of Truckers News magazine, however, said Mexican trucks with hazardous materials aren't included in the new program.
"I think it would be a very long time before the border would open to hazardous loads," he said.
The truck that exploded in Coahuila did not appear to be headed for the U.S. It had recently left an Orica explosives plant and was headed west to Coquimatlan, Colima, a federal police officer who was not authorized to give his name told The Associated Press by phone.
A woman who answered the phone at Orica's offices in Monclova said all company officials were at a meeting, and she could not comment. The company is based in Australia and has operations in 50 countries across six continents.
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Prayers for the victims.
The story may have posted on Ap-Yahoo in the last hour, but the collision was Sunday.
Why would anyone want to get close to a dynamite truck that is burning?
Quite a few kabooms going off in Mexico today.
Explosions Strike Mexico Gas Pipelines
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1894097/posts
It ought to raise questions about dynamite and coal mining. Few trucks could withstand the explosion of a load of dynamite, not Mexican trucks, not American trucks.
Randy Grider, editor of Truckers News magazine, however, said Mexican trucks with hazardous materials aren't included in the new program. "I think it would be a very long time before the border would open to hazardous loads," he said.
Hey Randy, wanna bet on that.
... courtesy of a late-night, bureaucratic end run. I'm feeling more profitable already, aren't you? < /s >
Guaranteed that al-qaeda and other terror groups perked up when they heard that explosion.
Well this is one way to stop the Trans-Texas Corridor, let these guys drive hazmat loads along a highway integrated with rail and oil/gas pipelines. /sarc
Bystanders crowd around burning dynamite truck. Darwin Awards?
This is certainly spectacular enough to garner notice under any circumstances, but I’m anticipating that every accident involving a Mexican truck either in Mexico or the US is going to get play by the media. Accidents that would have been ignored before the Mexican trucks got permission to go deep in the US.
“”I think it would be a very long time before the border would open to hazardous loads,” he said.”
The main applications at this time will involve drug running to Chicago.
Coulda been Kansas City.
I suspect that US regulations would not allow that quantity of a high explosive to be in one truck on public highways. But I might be wrong.
The Roseville railroad yard was blown up by a left over bomb, had nothing to do with hazards loads on semis.
Who wants to bet that one year from now, Mexican truckers have killed more Americans than terrorists have?
R U ready? This'll be coming to a town near you....soon.
Thanks to GWB....and he just grand?!
*spit*
Probably not as many as Teamsters do.
John
Now, that's a shocking surprise. Fleeing the scene of an accident......
Oh. Sorry. I was thinking about somewhere else.....
Thanks for the ping!
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