Gasoline tanker rolls over, burns at NJ Tpk exit, driver rescued by Turnpike patrons

A gasoline tanker truck rolled over and caught fire on the New Jersey Turnpike north off ramp of IC16W at NJ3 in East Rutherford in the Meadowlands, Thursday Nov 20, 3pm. The tanker had the standard 8500 gallons (32k liters) of gasoline aboard and the plume of smoke sent up by the fire could easily be seen from all over Manhattan 10km (6 miles) and more away. Truck driver Rajinder Singh, 33 of Queens managed to hoist himself out of the cab and jump down onto the roadway nearby, but he was reportedly dazed by shock, and was standing nearby with his clothes and shoes on fire, oblivious to his danger.

His life may have been saved by passing motorists, one especially.

Angelica Mercado, 24, a student nurse of North Bergen, and two 17 year old twin brothers Sergio and Eddie Valente got out of their separate cars and knocked Singh to the ground to douse his flames. Mercado pulled off her parker-style jacket and used it to smother the flames of Singh's clothes. They were joined by another unknown woman. Someone pulled off Singh's partly burning boots.

Ambulance and fire services were called but before they arrived the trucker's rescuers had pulled him into Mercado's car. The student nurse drove him to University Hospital in Newark. Later he was transferred to the care of burn specialists at St Barnabas Hospital in Livingston NJ where he was described as in "critical but stable condition."

Saturday, Singh was reported as having second and third degree burns over 40% of his body, but was expected to recover.

New Jersey Turnpike Authority's Joe Orlando said that Angelica Mercado's intervention was "heroic, absolutely."

COMMENTS: Tollroads obviously attract the best of humanity! Angelica Mercado's splendid initiative, bravery, and kindness deserves official recognition from the Turnpike and the state.

Traffic engineers, you've systematically screwed up on loops like those at 16W making them a constant cause of truck rollovers. Engineers, too many of you are tidyminded, rule obsessed people, innocent of how normal people live (and drive) by intuition rather than by rules.

Too many road designers live with the fantasy that posting a speed limit sign will lower actual driving speeds!

Or else they think that those who disregard their little signs deserve to burn to death?

Raise your design speeds to realistic numbers, guys, and bank those curves more if you can't increase the radii.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-11-22