Even ten years apart, these explosions underline the dangers facing the Bruce every day
What are the odds: the National Highway, both the Bruce at Bororen near Gladstone and the Inland National Highway route at Angellala (Charleville) were devastated by ammonium nitrate explosions 10 years apart, bar a week.
the massive crater left by last week's collision and explosion on the Bruce Highway (ABC image).
The Bororen accident saw the tragic loss of one life, while the Angellala incident which took out a bridge miraculously didn’t result in any deaths, although a person suffered life-long injuries.
Both accidents resulted in parts of the National Highway being shut for weeks and bypasses constructed and detours put in place .
I was able to fly over the Angellala site in 2014 in a light aircraft at about 500ft and was staggered just how big a crater the explosion created – it was very wide and deep, not to mention the modern bridge that was destroyed. Whist it’s a hackneyed phrase , the site did resemble a war zone .
Ammonium Nitrate was the material used in 1995 Oklahoma City bombing which caused 168 deaths. It has also been at the centre of a number of factory explosions in recent history in the US, most particularly in West, Texas, where 15 lives were lost.
Put simply, Ammonium Nitrate is a highly explosive material that becomes a very large bomb if ignited due to vehicular accidents causing fuel to be leaked into the nitrate. In both Queensland incidents, the blast was felt up to 30k away .
The thinking was that had the Angellala blast occurred in or around Charleville, rather than the 30k south it did, the explosion would have levelled Charleville.
The fact that is Ammonium Nitrate is transported on both the Bruce and Inland National Highway on a very regular basis, and accidents do happen.
There needs to be an immediate review of current transportation practices and all steps taken to avoid an absolute calamity occurring.
