(all assuming what we see is real, not staged)
Originally posted by Racer X 69 What caused the collision?
There was a silver van in front of the two cars in the 2nd lane from the left that was changing lanes just before the blue/orange/gray truck with the cylinders blocked the view. The silver van then suddenly reappears and the blue truck slams into the rear of it. I'm thinking the driver of the silver van was trying to get behind the orange truck in the rightmost lane, slammed on the brakes, and the blue truck with the cylinders was going too fast / not paying attention.
EDIT: Found a longer edit. At the beginning, there was a sign indicating an exit 250m ahead for "IVANOVSKOY". I think the silver van was trying to make the exit 'way too late. 820ft from the exit, he should have been in the right lane, NOT two lanes over.
Originally posted by Racer X 69 The initial fire started far too easily. Why?
Dunno. The initial explosion seems to be a cylinder that rockets left into the median barrier, bounces off, then spins & makes it all the way back across to behind the truck or the shoulder.
Originally posted by Racer X 69 Why is it that for over three minutes there still are no fire crews on the scene?
In the longer edit, they arrive in about 9 minutes. The whole thing was over in about ten. At the point where the police car arrives and backs away, an ambulance and a fire truck arrive on the opposite side of the highway at about the same time. They wisely wait for a second truck, which has a deluge cannon. When I saw that truck/camper disintegrate on I-95 just outside of Fredericksburg, it was at least ten minutes before Spotsylvania fire/rescue got there.
Originally posted by Racer X 69 Why are so many dipsticks hanging out so close? Those cylinders have a huge amount of pressure in them, as is evidenced by the ones rocketing about randomly. Very dangerous.
(signs and lettering on the police car appear to be in Russian) From what I've seen of Russian dashcam videos, what we consider insanely dangerous, they consider "Thursday". Apologies, if necessary, to our Russian members.
Originally posted by Racer X 69 How many cylinders were on that truck? It didn't look that big.
As the truck passed, I freeze-framed and counted eight or nine rows down the side and six or seven cylinders across the back - so somewhere between 48 and 63 cylinders? (assuming each row was full). Someone on YouTube counted at least 36 explosions.