Tanker truck explosion in Bologna, Italy - video

[Frank S]

Whilst I agree with the main points of your post Frank, and certainly the driver of the bullet was in the wrong, he certainly didnt have a full km to slow down or change lanes.

Stating a full Km may be a bit of an over statement I'll admit, but the traffic had already nearly stopped before the tanker even came into view it only appeared to travel about 2 possibly 2 stripes from the time he entered the video until the time of impact. I counted 22 possibly 23 white stripes from far left to impact zone judging by the length of the blue lorry on the left side which would be approximately 18 meters in length keeping with the EU standard length laws stopping the video at 16, it shows that the stripes would be near to a 5 x 8 length and space 2 stripes 1 space 18 meters, 22/23 or approx 300 meters. His entering speed looked to be around 80 KMH traffic had most probably been slowing 5 to 10 seconds prior to his coming on the scene so add another 100 to 100 meters. giving him ample time to react and avoid what happened . Notice the 2 ttls behind him managed to stop and it looked like just as the flames started to erupt the 1 nearest the tanker had begun to reverse I can't say about how long the gap was in the video but if they had reversed completely out of frame then it must have been near a full minute.
This would be in keeping the approximate amount of time it could have taken for the fire to reach high enough intensity to cause the contents in the tanker to explode. depending on structural integrity of the tank and volatility of the contents.
No matter how I or we speculate about the accident it was totally avoidable. Clear day good visibility dry road surface plenty of distance from time of entering the video frames to point of impact.