Tank truck accidents are among the most dangerous incidents on America’s highways. The sheer mass of these vehicles alone makes any crash more severe. Add a naturally high center of gravity, and you have a truck carrying enormous weight that is far less stable than most other commercial vehicles.
NOW ADD two critical risk factors unique to tank trucks—and routine hauling can quickly become a disaster.
Why Tank Truck Accidents Are So Dangerous
- Hazardous Liquid Cargo
Tank trucks often transport toxic, flammable, or environmentally hazardous liquids. When a crash occurs, the consequences can extend far beyond vehicle damage—spills, fires, explosions, and environmental contamination are real possibilities.
- Liquid Surge Inside the Tank
Liquid surge occurs when fluid moves freely inside a tank during braking, acceleration, or cornering. This moving liquid creates powerful, uncontrolled energy that can abruptly alter the truck’s direction, dramatically increasing the risk of rollover or loss of control.
Together, hazardous cargo and liquid surge turn ordinary truck accidents into real-life nightmares.
The Hidden Energy Behind Tank Truck Accidents
Thank God for the men and women—and the companies behind them—who safely shepherd essential liquid products to their destinations every day. Without tank truck operators, modern life would come to a standstill.
“Shepherd” is the right word. It takes focus, skill, and discipline to guide what can effectively be a rolling bomb down America’s highways. Delivering that load safely is a daily triumph.
Failing to do so is what the industry knows as a nightmare.
The severity of a tank truck accident depends on many variables, but energy is always at the top of the list. Higher speeds create more kinetic energy, and the difference between a 10-mph incident and a 60-mph crash is staggering. More energy means more destruction.
That leads to a crucial safety question:
How can fleets remove energy from the equation—especially the hidden energy created by liquid surge?
Surge Buster™ Technology:
Controlling Liquid Surge at the Source
Traditional welded-in baffle systems do not eliminate liquid surge. They simply transfer surge energy from the liquid into the tank shell, frame, suspension, and other components of the truck.
Surge Buster™ technology takes a fundamentally different approach.
Surge Busters eliminate up to 96% of liquid surge energy while it is still inside the tank, before that energy can affect vehicle stability or contribute to a crash.
Because the energy is neutralized internally:
- It isn’t transferred into the truck
- It isn’t released during an accident
- It isn’t delivered into whatever the truck strikes—another vehicle, a guardrail, a tree, or a bridge abutment
- Surge Buster liquid surge control system
Less energy means:
- Fewer injuries
- Less vehicle damage
- Less likelihood of a rollover
- Significantly lower risk of tank rupture, fire, or explosion
In many tank truck accidents, the difference between a survivable event and a catastrophic loss comes down to how much surge energy is released in the critical moment of impact.
Why Nothing Else Matches the Surge Buster™ Advantage
Modern fleets focused on tank truck safety, rollover prevention, and liability reduction are increasingly adopting Surge Buster™ systems as part of their overall safety strategy.
- Drivers
- The motoring public
- Equipment and cargo
- The environment
- Their bottom line
Improve Tank Truck Safety Today – Reduce “Nightmares”
