Primer truck explosion

[murf205]

Thursday afternoon a primer truck exploded at the East Alton Ammunition Plant (Winchester) killing the 60 yr old driver. Our condolences to the family for their loss. Not many things are sadder than a man or woman getting up everyday and going to their job and loosing their life in the process. This was the Shotshell primer facility if I read the press release right. It will certainly impact the priming compound supply negatively. To all of the Castboolit people who are making their own or attempting to, please exercise even more caution.
Murf

[Martin Luber]

Chemical supply or finished product? I would guess the former. Truck drivers everywhere have a vital and dangerous job and are often taken for granted. We see it daily with idiots in cars. I do everything I can to make their day better. Aside: My uncle drove truck during the Chosin campaign in Korea and had his partner killed right beside him. Another Gt Uncle was a Pearl Harbor veteran. Prayers and gratitude.

[GregLaROCHE]

With all the safety procedures and restrictions they have for BP, I’m surprised something like that could have happened.

[P Flados]

A snippet of info that I saw in a AP press release:

"Bettorf was the driver of a semitrailer loaded with shotgun shell primers that exploded while being transported inside the Winchester ammunition plant owned by Olin Corp., Nonn said Friday."

[dverna]

It would be interesting to see a photo of the aftermath.

Trying to figure out how they got touched off. Maybe static electricity?

[steveu]

I wonder what else was in the trailer, mixed load????

[NSB]

I think there’s something missing from this story. About twenty years ago I was shooting Team Challenge Matches that were sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and one of their reps attended almost all the matches. We spent a lot of time talking to him for a few years and he was a great resource for data and statistics. He once told us that they deliberately attempted to get a load of primers to blow up to see what would happen. Like tossing rimfire ammo into a burn barrel, they just “popped” off at a rapid rate but did not explode. I suspect that the truck driver didn’t die in an explosion, but perhaps burned to death in a fire inside the plant. More info is needed here.

[El Bibliotecario]

I agree with the previous poster that something is missing. I am reminded of the many accounts of firearms discharging while someone was allegedly cleaning their gun.

[Bigslug]

When Gus Grissom's Mercury capsule was finally found, his story of him NOT deliberately triggering the explosive bolts on the hatch was confirmed. It seems they did in fact "Just blow".

It's possible that we're just looking at the unfortunate law of averages. In my job, I get to handle A LOT of factory cartridges prior to them being fired by others. While the vast majority of it is very good stuff, I've seen bullets not swaged to final shape, bullets loaded backwards, case mouths crushed, primers seated backwards and sideways, flash holes not drilled in primer pockets, single "wrong" cartridges of another part number in the box, +P brass used to make a non-+P load, and dud primers. If you make and sell something by the billions, you're going to miss sometimes.

But the vital question here - what touched it off?

[TD1886]

I think there’s something missing from this story. About twenty years ago I was shooting Team Challenge Matches that were sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and one of their reps attended almost all the matches. We spent a lot of time talking to him for a few years and he was a great resource for data and statistics. He once told us that they deliberately attempted to get a load of primers to blow up to see what would happen. Like tossing rimfire ammo into a burn barrel, they just “popped” off at a rapid rate but did not explode. I suspect that the truck driver didn’t die in an explosion, but perhaps burned to death in a fire inside the plant. More info is needed here.

Just an interesting note. When I was a kid almost everyone burned their paper trash and usually in 55 gallon drums. My uncle was burning the paper trash one day and a 22 was in the trash and went off. He said, can't remember, either the case or the bullet when through the drum wall and stuck in his skin. Before I get comments on it going through the wall of the drum remember those drums got pretty deteriorated with fire in them and being exposed to the elements outside, so the are pretty thin. I would think the case being lighter then the bullet that it would be the part that went flying. Personally I don't think that really happened, don't know.

[Bloodman14]

Mythbusters used a dead short in an old truck testing a story that two 'good 'ol boys' used a .22 as a fuse. The brass went flying and did minor damage to Buster.

[Maineboy]

A link to one of the news reports. It doesn't say much.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/illinois-...lls-1-employee

[mdi]

I too, would need more info to be sure of this report (no offence to the OP intended). Been around reloading for over 40 years and have never heard of primers "just going off, unattended". I've seen the videos of truck loads of ammunition and components purposely set on fire, primers arced with voltage and a couple other attempts to see how dangerous ammo and components can be with very few dangerous results...

[mehavey]

Unless the primers were all jumbled together -- bare naked* -- in multiple huge drums,
I can't imagine any circumstance wherein what was described could happen.
*(actually, not even then)

I'll wait for Paul Harvey....

[D.Bullets]

It would be interesting to see a photo of the aftermath.

Trying to figure out how they got touched off. Maybe static electricity?

Found pic of truck. I was expecting more property distruction.

[Mk42gunner]

I have not been following this story, but am reminded of several educational safety movies while in the Navy.

A surprisingly high percentage of the explosive mishaps began with: "It started in the priming area." Didn't matter if they were talking of high explosives, artillery or naval propellant charges, or small arms ammo.

Robert

[charlie b]

My condolences to the family.

The pic of the truck looks like it is a special rig for some kind of processing. It could be that it is just one of the trucks they use in primer production.

[murf205]

That's what I thought too, Charlie. It looks like it might be an dedicated in plant vehicle rather that a larger truck we usually associate with when the industrial setting is imagined. The report I read said he died from blunt force trauma. Dangerous job no matter the safety precautions taken.

[Char-Gar]

Years ago a pallet of Federal primers went Kaboom. That is when they changed the packaging. They were once sold in five groove plastic containers. The primers were nested ten to a groove on their sides against each other. You know how they are packaged today.

My best guess is that the current explosion was caused by human negligence.

[TD1886]

Years ago a pallet of Federal primers went Kaboom. That is when they changed the packaging. They were once sold in five groove plastic containers. The primers were nested ten to a groove on their sides against each other. You know how they are packaged today.

My best guess is that the current explosion was caused by human negligence.

That was many many many years ago they changed that.