Close
Updated:

Gasoline tanker crashes and explodes on Lookout Mountain

Driving a gasoline tanker truck is one of the most dangerous and nerve-racking of occupations. I have heard from tanker truck drivers that they live in constant amprehension of disaster. After a relatively minor collision, their stress may suffer a form of post-traumatic stress disorder from contemplation of the close call.

This week a gasoline tanker truck operated by Florida Rock and Tanklines crashed and burned on Georgia Highway 157 on Lookout Mountain, as reported by WTVC television in Chattanooga. The driver was killed in the resulting explosion and fire.

Highway 157 is a beautiful route through a bucolic mountaintop landscape. Until I was 12 I lived at Mentone, Alabama, on top of Lookout Mountain, and went to school at Menlo, Georgia, in Shinbone Valley, so the site of this fiery crash is just a few miles north of the route I rode to school every day.

Contact Us