Authorities say the crash happened about 3:30 p.m. near the entrance of the Central Florida Fairgrounds near Colonial Drive and Pete Parrish Boulevard.
The couple, identified as Pierre Dadaille and Meguydeline Dessource, had a barbecue grill in the back of their red Kia Sorento, Orlando Police Lt. Cindy Lane said.
The grill was turned on and the propane tank was open and connected, Lane said.
Police said the wife went to light up a cigarette and the SUV exploded.
Here’re my candidates for the Darwin of the Year award, first and second places.
Holy …I’m amazed there’s not even MORE damage! How in the world do you NOT notice the smell of propane?! I know smoking erodes the sense of smell, but that much?!
I have to second your nomination for the Darwin candidates. The airbags must the only reason they even survived this.
Morons.
I’d love to hear their explanation to the insurance adjuster.
In OK City about 10 years ago some woman who lived in a brick rental home set off a bunch of bug bombs and then went for a drive while they did their work.
She neglected to turn off pilots and so on. Why bother with directions? At some point the A/C kicked on and the house blew up.
The news report showed all of the windows and doors blown out along with the garage door. Not shown was the kitchen cabinets and so on blown loose or various sections of sheet rock dislodged from the studs. No mention of furniture which was likely wiped out.
I’m kind of thinking that the gas tank should be disconnected and maybe close the valve on the tank. This is proof that an accident is a chain of events and if just one link in the chain is broken, there will be no accident.
Several things could have prevented this. No smoking with gas tank in car. Close the valve on the tank. Have good valves on stove. Pickup truck.
Yeah sure blame it on the wife. Well a little hammer and dolly work and it’ll be good as new. Hope they bought the extra insurance though.
I had a guy at work that liked to grill for everyone on Fridays but then during the week he would bring the tank inside. I told him either take it home or leave it outside. He just kind of looked at me wondering what the problem was. Kaboom is the problem.
I am always nervous about buying propane tanks, Buy one a year, make sure I am alone, the tank is in the trunk, secured and I just slowly drive home directly from the station.
The Orlando paper reports they were burned but was not life threatening. However the guy had a warrant on him so was taken to jail. The police said the vehicle was “severely damaged”. Yeah I’d say it was. Any time you blow the door handles off you can expect a little damage. Wonder what they were cookin’ back there on the grill?
This story is just an endless supply of jokes. And she said dang I just had my hair straightened, now look at it.
I’m amazed at the way (apparently) the roof of the car was pushed up to form that strange shape. I didn’t think painted steel could do that.
Also amazing that they survived. Think of the force required to deform the roof that much and that same force applied to your body. I think the seat backs and headrests protected them to some extent.
This is not eligible for any Darwin awards because the occupants survived. Now if their ability to reproduce was removed, then they are definitely in the running!
I thought cigarette packs contained the words that they could be harmful to your health? Maybe the lady couldn’t read. Now I wonder if the lady will give up smoking?
I have a 35 gallon tank in the trunk of my camry. It is really no different than the CNG vehicles other than propane is much lower pressures. I have a 3,000 gallon tank a couple hundred feet from the house that I fill the car, trucks, tractor, and bbq tanks from.
…I’m amazed there’s not even MORE damage! How in the world do you NOT notice the smell of propane?! I know smoking erodes the sense of smell, but that much?!
