With the variety of accident-avoidance technology now available on passenger cars, there is growing interest in making it mandatory on the big rig trucks that travel the highways each day. It's the kind of thing that could have made a difference in a tragic accident more than 40 years ago that changed California's rules of the road.
"There's over two million shipments of hazmat every day in the United States of America," said former U.S. Department of Transportation Deputy Administrator Bob Richard. "And most of the incidents involved flammable liquids, primarily combustible liquids for fuel oil for homes, home heating. Human error is the biggest contributing factor.
You'll no longer see tanker trucks hauling hazardous materials in the tunnels unless you travel pretty early. Signs say trucks hauling hazardous materials are now restricted between the hours of 3 to 5 a.m. And the Caldecott fire even changed how tunnels are built. But all the tunnels have fans, and they came in handy in 2015 when another fiery car crash left one tunnel filled with smoke. And for those caught in a fire, there are also several emergency doors allowing people to escape to the adjoining tunnel. They actually existed back in 1982, but there is no evidence that they were ever used in that fire.