"An explosives handler frustrated with the bureaucracy for moving dangerous goods tried to sneak a potentially catastrophic amount of explosives on to an inter-island ferry.
Allan Herbert Tod, 67, of Raetihi, did not do the paperwork to take the 663kg of blasting explosive on to the 2.25am sailing on August 15, 2010...
...Tod pleaded guilty to charges of criminal nuisance, failing to correctly identify his load, failing to give the master of the ship the required dangerous goods declaration, failing to placard his vehicle to warn of the dangerous load and failing to carry dangerous goods documentation.
He was sentenced in the High Court at Wellington today to 300 hours community work and a $5000 fine.
Tod was taking the explosive - a mix of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil - to help control avalanches at Mt Hutt ski-field. He worked part time for a business specialising in avalanche control...."
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This mix is less of a hazard than the fuel in the tanks of the vehicles aboard. FAR less, in the case of petrol or LPG. I'm not about to tell the internet how to make that mix go bang, but you could drop it from a low earth orbit and it would just make a sticky mess on the ground.
A typical beat-up by the grey-shoe wearers (aided and abetted by the police prosecutors), which is more about failure to 'follow the procedures' than any real danger to others. In ignoring their overkill requirements, he has offended his political masters and for this he MUST BE PUNISHED SEVERELY!
14 comments:
"potentially catastrophic"??
Inter-island ferries have killed more people than any diesel/fertilizer mix to date in NZ.
Quite right KG. Incompetent ships captains with fertilizer for brains are the biggest danger to passengers.
Os...no where can I find a reference to the two mixtures actually being mixed together at the time of this 'frustrated' man being arrested. Of course, if both items were mixed together at the time the likelyhood of a resulting explosion is quite obvious, but if both mixes were separated and not mixed together then it cannot be construed as an explosive agent, as unmixed it is therefore neutralized and quite safe to be transported, and cannot be legally considered and explosive device.
If this fella had chosen to transport one mix without the other, and transported them on separate trips, there would have been no reason to have him hauled to court.
As they say, the Law is an Ass and his useless defence lawyer needs to go back and study up the law!
"..Of course, if both items were mixed together at the time the likelyhood of a resulting explosion is quite obvious."
Yes--obviously almost impossible.
Properly mixed it needs a LOT of 'help' to go bang.
Those two products mixed together will spontaneously explode if given the right conditions. I've witnessed it for myself! My point is that as both were not mixed together at the time there was no danger inherent in the separated products, and any good lawyer should have been able to argue that out of court!
I've seen and used LOT of explosives in my time and I have never yet seen it suggested by anybody in the business that an ammonium nitrate and fuel oil mix is capable of spontaneously exploding.
I'd be interested to know what the "right conditions" are, because they seem to have escaped my instructors.
Well KG, I know what I and about twenty others were witness to. If you find that difficult to believe then that is not my problem!
Oh, it's no problem at all. :)
Since you don't specify under what conditions, where and when this alleged event took place, I'll go with extensive personal experience and dismiss the claim as not credible.
Oh dear! In for the cheap shot eh KG?
If you regard that as a cheap shot, you need to grow up or fuck off, Nemesis.
Oh dear, for every gas bottle in motor homes not turned off, every spray can, that can be lite, every fume that is obvious in the ferries. This man is being made an exampe of and at the end of the day everyopne who goes on the ferries could also help towards a catastrophic explosion.
And none of the gas bottles or ammonias that are carried (window cleaner) are all for personal use, not for the safety of thousands on a ski field, so the law has mucked up and put many at risk so that they can have the last say in a big mistak that they hae made.
If this man had been allowed to do his job and deliver his product it is known a life would have been saved on that day.And yet the beauracrtic bungling this could not be let to happen.When beauracratic bungling lets this happen it needs to be sorted urgently.
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