News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
It went in easily enough...
The crew piloting a massive truck and tanker rig from Coos Bay to Las Vegas, Nevada, made a bad judgment call in Sisters on Tuesday night, August 13.
The lead pilot told the driver hauling a 95-foot, 100,000-gallon propane tank that he could pull in to the Threewind Shopping Center for a break.
He could pull in all right; he just couldn't get out again.
The rig was 118 feet long total -- way too big to maneuver around the 206-by-226-foot parking lot. And the way the trailer was set up, the truck could not back up.
There the rig sat all day Wednesday, blocking off access to about 40 percent of the parking lot. The tank had been purged for transport, so there was no danger from propane gas. However, there was some concern about maneuvering the truck around and losing control of the tank.
At a weight of 100,000 pounds, the tank could have taken out a building or several cars if it had tipped off the trailer.
A team was brought in to evaluate the situation. Eventually, they secured the back end of the trailer so that the rig could be backed up and jockeyed the truck out of the parking lot at about 7 p.m.
According to the back-end pilot, the tank was one of a pair being shipped from Coos Bay to Las Vegas, where they were to be used by a cab company that fuels its cars with propane.
They were originally brought to Coos Bay by rail.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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