My brother sent this to me. Just one more reason not to live in California! We may have ice, snow, damn cold, salt, tornadoes, etc, but at least we don't have falling engines.

Warrenoliver


Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment



http://www.10news.com/video/13760131/index.html





By Greg Gross
UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM

8:30 a.m. July 26, 2007



GREGORY GROSS / Union-Tribune
This SUV was one of three cars caught under the crushing force of a 200-ton engine which fell off its transport on Harbor Drive early this morning.


SAN DIEGO – A diesel engine bound for installation in a Navy ship slid off its trailer early Thursday morning, landing on at least three parked vehicles, including one in which a woman was sleeping, police said.
The woman escaped with minor injuries.

The 200-ton engine hit the ground with enough force to break through the concrete pavement and crack open a 16-inch cast-iron water main buried beneath the street in front of the National Steel & Shipbuilding Co. shipyard, the engine's ultimate destination.

The incident occurred after midnight Thursday.

The engine was being trucked down to NASSCO from the Port of San Diego along Harbor Drive aboard a large tractor-trailer rig, escorted by two other vehicles, said San Diego police Sgt. Kevin Friedman.

“They were going at a very low speed, no more than about 2 or 3 miles per hour,” Friedman said.

The convoy had just passed 28th Street, directly in front of the shipyard in Barrio Logan, when the huge engine began to slide off the trailer, ultimately coming to rest on a Dodge sedan, a Ford Aerostar and at least one other vehicle, Friedman said.

The engine compartment and front seats of the Ford van were crushed and shoved below the pavement, leaving the vehicle's rear end hanging in the air.

“The woman was in the van. She was checked out, but her injuries appeared to be pretty minor,” the sergeant said. The water main rupture flooded Harbor Drive for a distance of about 300 feet. It also cut off the water supply into the shipyard, prompting NASSCO officials to cancel their first shift of the day, affecting more than 3,000 of their roughly 6,000 employees, said NASSCO spokesman Karl Johnson.

Shipyard officials declined any comment on the accident itself.

Lifting the engine out of the shallow crater it made in the street was expected to take several hours.

San Diego police issued a traffic alert through the afternoon for Harbor Drive and 28th Street and urged drivers to take alternative routes.


Shawn Tunks
Materials Science Engineer


701 White Avenue
Beloit, WI 53511

So am I leaving CA because of this? I dont think so!

I am not leaving either, not because of that. That is just a fluke accident that could have happened anywhere.

And this next winter, I will be driving my 914 with the top off thinking about all of you that choose to live where it is cold and raining and snowing and living with your tornadoes and hurricanes.

I understand that, as a California resident and taxpayer, I am now obligated to respond as follows:

"That's right -- if the earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, floods, rickety levees, overpriced real estate, sieve-like border, celebrity freaks and lingering hippies aren't enough to keep you away, consider that 200 ton diesel engines fall from the sky here! Stay away! As you love life, stay out of California!!"

Reminds me of all the "Welcome to California -- now go home" bumper stickers I used to see when I visited in the early 90s...


None of which is meant to take away from yer cute story, Warren. It's a hoot, thanks for sharing.

I was thinking of getting a bumpersticker here in washington that said something to the effect of 'stop complaining or go back to california' cause there's so many californians who come up here and then complain about the rainy weather or that there's no liquor in the grocery stores.

I would not want to be the guy that signed off on that load.
I'd love to know the cause of it sliding off. Just the mad physicist in me.

I vil make a new law fo KAliFOniA dat will stop all ov dos tings to HAppin in Aur coMUnities so Vee Vill nOOOOt be crushed By DOS tings agaaaaYn! Da tEEEMinaTee HAAASS PSokeeeeen.

And the crowd cheared,"YYYaaaaAAaaa!!!"

Nope. Not leaving. Being from Minnesota I have long been of the opinion that the only remaining redeeming value of Wisconsin is the ability to buy beer on Sunday... PS if you are going to risk pissing off half the 914 owners in the world I would mitigate the possible damage by putting a smiley at the end of it. That engine could have just as easily fallen on parked cars in Superior harbor. Of course in Superior there would have been drunks sleeping in every one of the cars!