Static electricity hazard while pumping gasoline

[Soundguy]

not sure if i posted it here or not.. but a year ago i was headed to work. i stopped at a light and was watching a guy behind me slowing down. looked normal. he was slowing..e tc. so i look ahead again to keep an eye on the light then all of a sudden i feel a jolt. look up.. and i don't see him anymore

he het me.. not a 'plow in' or anything.. but he had still been moving some low double digit # when he hit me. his story was he glanced down at his gps and misjudged his distance and speed.. whatever.. light changes i hang a left and pul into the jiffy beside us.. he does as well. I get out. it's a young kid.. maybee early 20's.. looks shaken.. I ask if he is ok.. he says fine.. but he;s still moving slow. i take a look at his front end. grill crushed hod bowed up. both quarter panels drawn in, both headlamp clusters nuked, his lower air dam / cowling was popped out and rubbing.. whatever passed for a plasti-bumper was mashed and bowed dow from bending forces of material above,a nd wa spinned to both front tires, thus rubbing as he rolled. I swallowed hard as i walked to the back of my 99 f350 dually to see what the damage was.. hmm.. ok.. there is a new nickel sized ding in my metal bumper right next to the 50 cent sized ding i put in there backing up into my gooseneck trailer post. that's it.. literally.. a ding inthe metal bumper you could hide with a nickel...

cops showed up.. everyone was kinda amazed..one asked me if i was a witness tot he accident, and i told him i was the one that got hit.. he did a doubletake at my bumper.. i them pointed out one of the dents was from me.

I was late for work at that point and the lead cop on scene asked me what i wanted to do.. IE.. how i felt about the guy getting a ticket.. I told em i had no interest in him getting a ticket if they could let him go.. kid thanked me.. i guess while calling his mom to get a tow truck.. i hopped inmy truck and went to work..

gosh i love driving a big 14yr old truck...

Agreed, I see a lot of people in small cars doing the same thing in front of transport trucks.....

..... Go Lemmings, GO !

Hey, they're just creating mobile speed bumps....... yeah, that's it !

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

You definitely have fizx on your side, driving a one ton.

Remember the telescoping bumpers mandated on the cars in the 70's ? Who was it recently (last 3 years) did testing on an old Ford Escort (with those shock absorbing bumpers) and modern small cars.

Low speed frontal crash testing - all the modern stuff rang in with thousands of $ of damage, the Escort was next to nothing.

A significant part of today's "safety" design philosophy revolves around keeping car production lines running, IMO.

Rgds, D.

 

[JasG]

not sure if i posted it here or not.. but a year ago i was headed to work. i stopped at a light and was watching a guy behind me slowing down. looked normal. he was slowing..e tc. so i look ahead again to keep an eye on the light then all of a sudden i feel a jolt. look up.. and i don't see him anymore

he het me.. not a 'plow in' or anything.. but he had still been moving some low double digit # when he hit me. his story was he glanced down at his gps and misjudged his distance and speed.. whatever.. light changes i hang a left and pul into the jiffy beside us.. he does as well. I get out. it's a young kid.. maybee early 20's.. looks shaken.. I ask if he is ok.. he says fine.. but he;s still moving slow. i take a look at his front end. grill crushed hod bowed up. both quarter panels drawn in, both headlamp clusters nuked, his lower air dam / cowling was popped out and rubbing.. whatever passed for a plasti-bumper was mashed and bowed dow from bending forces of material above,a nd wa spinned to both front tires, thus rubbing as he rolled. I swallowed hard as i walked to the back of my 99 f350 dually to see what the damage was.. hmm.. ok.. there is a new nickel sized ding in my metal bumper right next to the 50 cent sized ding i put in there backing up into my gooseneck trailer post. that's it.. literally.. a ding inthe metal bumper you could hide with a nickel...

cops showed up.. everyone was kinda amazed..one asked me if i was a witness tot he accident, and i told him i was the one that got hit.. he did a doubletake at my bumper.. i them pointed out one of the dents was from me.

I was late for work at that point and the lead cop on scene asked me what i wanted to do.. IE.. how i felt about the guy getting a ticket.. I told em i had no interest in him getting a ticket if they could let him go.. kid thanked me.. i guess while calling his mom to get a tow truck.. i hopped inmy truck and went to work..

gosh i love driving a big 14yr old truck...

Similar to what happened to me in 1999 with a 1995 F150. Only differences are we were stopped at a red light and I was turning left. Older woman behind me in a compact car talking with a friend. Light turns green, I inch forward waiting for traffic on other side of light to clear. I look up in the mirror and the woman is talking to her friend never saw my signal or me stopped and hits me. I don't feel much yet it destroyed the front of her car. It slightly bent my rear bumper a little, but not much, never did anything to fix it. She wouldn't have gotten a ticket except our stories didn't match. She claimed to be by herself and her foot slipped off the brake. A bystander stayed as a witness and point to the woman who was riding with her standing near a bus stop. All he said was he saw 2 people in the car, when they hit me. Don't know what ticket she got, didn't really care.

Damage to the car was very similar to what happened with your situation.

 

[powerpace]

Just bought a manual fuel transfer pump from a race car owner that had a grounding wire with connecting jack similar to a older style audio system. Required by track operators he stated.

 

[3930dave]

Just bought a manual fuel transfer pump from a race car owner that had a grounding wire with connecting jack similar to a older style audio system. Required by track operators he stated.

Any responsible race organization is big on enforcing safety practices. Depending on the race fuel used, flames may have little/no visiblity.

Racing has it's inherent risks, so they work to minimize the collateral ones.

Many a race driver has been quoted as saying the only time they get really scared is driving on a public street.

Rgds, D.