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grand canyon

Veering off the road is a scary event. Veering off the road that runs around the rim of the Grand Canyon is downright terrifying. Typically, a scenario that involves the terms “Grand Canyon,” “automobile” and “plunge” usually end with the phrase “the fat lady has sung.” For one particular 21-year-old man, that luckily doesn’t seem to be the case.

Stating that he “accidentally drove over the rim,” the driver and his vehicle dropped 200 feet before winding up snagged in some trees. The man climbed back to the top of the canyon’s rim, flagged down help and was treated at an area hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. This leads us to believe the vehicle in question was either a Canyonero or the driver’s bones are made up of a mixture of horseshoes and rabbit’s feet. In any case, we’re glad he made it out alive.

[Source: AZ Daily Sun | Image: kasyhap_hc/Flickr CC 2.0]

21-year-old driver survives 200-foot plunge into Grand Canyon originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 27 Apr 2011 17:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Truck, China, Etc., Japan, Safety, Technology, Work

Sany pumper truck

Sany 203-foot concrete pumper truck – Click above for image gallery

Japan has turned to its neighbor across the water for help in cooling the number four reactor at the Tokyo Electric Company’s nuclear power plant in Fukushima. So far, scientists and engineers have used everything from helicopters to fire trucks to get sea water to the reactor’s fuel rods in order to prevent a meltdown, but according to China Realtime Report, a Wall Street Journal blog, a new solution is in the works. A 203-foot long concrete pumper truck has been called up from Chinese heavy equipment manufacturer Sany.

Instead of directing a stream of concrete up a sky scraper, this $1 million truck that was originally on its way to a Saudi client will now be used to pump sea water over the 141-foot reactor group in order to keep everything cool. Even at that height, the truck will still be able to remain 14 meters, or about 46 feet, away. Sany says that the truck left port in China on March 20 and has safely reached Japan, though there’s no word on whether or not it has begun operations at Fukushima.

Tokyo Electric Company originally offered to purchase the truck, but Sany is donating it and a full support team free of charge, and this isn’t the first time that the construction equipment manufacturer has lent a hand in international disaster efforts. The company also donated a giant crane to assist in the evacuation of the Chilean miners who were trapped in a mine last year.

Unfortunately, the very latest update from Japan is that Fukushima’s No. 3 reactor is leaking water with 10,000 times the normal level of radiation, which may indicate a breach of the reactor’s core. If that’s the case, there’s no telling how the Sany pump truck will be used when it arrives on site, or if it will be needed at all.

Gallery: Sana Group Co.’s 62-meter truck with contract pump

[Sources: Sany, China Realtime Report, China News]

Continue reading Meet the 203-foot truck on its way to save Fukushima’s No. 4 reactor

Meet the 203-foot truck on its way to save Fukushima’s No. 4 reactor originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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