AI6YR BenMassive traffic accident on the I-15, a truck carrying lithium batteries this morning. Northbound I-15 is closed (and jammed beyond jammed). #I15 #Barstow
Wow, the Mojave Desert is a HUGE mess. Good thing it's dark now, that would be brutal during the day. #mojave #trafficjam
Oh wow, we have ANOTHER "off the road" incident of frustrated drivers going off into the desert, misled by Google/Apple/Waze maybe?!?! 4wd!!! "100s of vehicles all over the place" 🤯 #trafficjam #I40 #mojave #mapquested
Darn, we have yesterday's traffic there, but not today. Will check another satellite. Cool thing: if you are lost in the Mojave in a vehicle, you ARE VISIBLE on Sentinel-2 satellite.
Bad thing: it takes several days... maybe 4-5... for an update.
Oooh. Road rage in the desert, someone pounding on the door of someone else stuck in traffic. Someone screaming and running across lanes. Semis have roadblocked I40/Kelbaker. (thinking the Semis actually might be doing some good by not pushing more people into that mess, tho). #I40 #Vegas #Mojave
Oooh, look what route you get from Barstow to Las Vegas tonight, LOL. (Routing through Death Valley ☠️ )
#desertdisaster #Mojave #Lasvegas
#desertdisaster #Mojave #Lasvegas
Here's the other route it gives you... Interesting bit of routing in the middle. Barstow to Las Vegas via the I-40 (with a detour in the desert)! #desertdisaster #LasVegas #Mojave
Aha, here's where there are "100's of cars" in the desert per CHP, around Lavic. I-40. #Mojave #DesertDisaster #LasVegas
Oh my... Google is most certainly directing people through a network of 4WD dirt track... I suspect a bunch of traction-challenged sedans got bogged down and now... no one can go anywhere. #DesertDisaster #LasVegas #Mojave #I40 #GoogleMaps
98F in Goffs there. 98F stuck in traffic, hoping you don't run out of gas and lose your A/C, and that you have enough water to survive the heat. #DesertDisaster #Mojave #I40
To top it off, someone's car got hit by a train on one of the alternate routes through the desert (at Goffs). Train is stopped, too. That's the main route for Amtrak, too... #train #accident #Mojave
MsMerope@ai6yr
so we need an emergency landing by an aircraft and maybe a hunk of space junk falling on someone.
Betcha didn't think about making a stuck on 40 bingo card!
@MsMerope There was a video of one earlier this year -- similar location, I think it was the I-15 -- but that one was in WINTER (ie, cool).
jj the Santa Barbarian@ai6yr now is this "just" because of the accident or is there some big hoop-de-doo in vegas this weekend?
🇺🇦 haxadecimal 🚫👑@ai6yr Sounds like a great place to not be.
W6KME@ai6yr In my SOTA adventures, I have had Google Maps recommend some truly remarkable routes-as PRIMARY routes. Often impassable to my Subaru. In one case, impassable to the most extreme Jeep. A helicopter might have made it.
Chris Nelder 🤘@ai6yr Gonna be very tough to untangle all this before it gets dangerously hot out there 🫣
Mike McCaffrey 
@chrisnelder @ai6yr Is there anything stopping everyone from just going back the way they came?
Cavedale Rhônes@ai6yr Well, most of the desert roads I have been on in that area were flat gravel and don’t require 4wd. Unless they cross a wash or two in which case it gets interesting!
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Expertenkommision CyberunfallDidn’t expect this skynet move on this early stage of war against humanity.
Hope everything ne is safe and smarter after that.
Matt Blaze@ai6yr The absolute best part of these directions is the suggestion that you could also get there by walking for two days.
@ai6yr I know that route - that’s the best option I think
Shirley Eugest@ai6yr
Is this about that truck carrying lithium batteries overturning?
@EugestShirley Yep, that is what started this whole thing. I-15 N to Vegas is closed.
@ai6yr
They gave my a random story as a non subscriber. Grrr.
They gave my a random story as a non subscriber. Grrr.
@ai6yr Yeah, nope.
What's the deal with I-15?
What's the deal with I-15?
@ai6yr Oh, just found it. A truckload of Li batteries had an oopsie.
Kat Valentine Allwell@mattblaze
From the looks of it, it wasn't necessarily a "truck full of batteries" but actually a utility-scale battery module, used to store energy on solar arrays.
The battery would have been around 500 kWh, maybe as much as 1 MWh of storage.
5-10x a Tesla.
@ai6yr
@mattblaze
pic of the unit
looked up "UN3536" and found this: https://unece.org/DAM/trans/doc/2019/dgac10c3/ST-SG-AC.10-C.3-2019-8e.pdf
It refers to "TRANSPORTABLE BATTERY POWER SYSTEM, lithium battery powered"
It is technically true the truck was "transporting batteries" but doesn't give a complete picture.
I found this site listing the systems and their capacities:
https://www.power-sonic.com/battery-energy-storage-systems/
This looks like a 20 foot conex, so that would match with the 500kWh to 1MWh capacity.
me_valentijnYeah, it does look like a mobile battery storage system, not a commercial truck load of batteries being transported somewhere for sale, etc.
Edited to add: the photo reminded me of a different brand ... which has the same parent company as the one you listed. It's all Kstar, with different branding for different countries. (It might not be Kstar in the photo, but it's definitely the same type of product.)
BakersRelay@ai6yr Jeesh, I missed this - what was the original issue?
Steve's Place
@ai6yr heat makes people stabby
Violet Madder
Eohippa@ai6yr I would hate, hate, hate to be anyone trying to move a trailer full of horses through that heat. The moving air is all that keeps them from overheating.
Been stuck on that stretch under decent weather, i.e. open windows, conditions and it's still terrible.
Mike Ely