Fueling up with kids in the car

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Fueling up with kids in the car

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#1294611 30-Apr-2015 22:08

Talkiet: I'd suggest the extra time you spent on the road dropping your wife off at home and going back for fuel yourself posed a bigger risk of robbing your wife of her husband than of having a refueling fire...

Cheers - N

Look at our accident statistics.

If you can avoid:

Driving while drunk.

Racing the police while trying to avoid getting stopped for being drunk, drving a stolen car or driving without the required licence.

Driving stupidly fast to try to impress your passengers.

Driving while jetlagged or tired from lack of sleep.

Losing your temper and trying to get back at another driver.

Doing a u-turn on a busy road when you get lost.

Driving when some other circumstance has made you upset or angry.

Then you are way safer on the road than the overall stats would suggest.

sidefx

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#1294616 30-Apr-2015 22:15

jpoc: Look at our accident statistics. If you can avoid: Driving while drunk. Racing the police while trying to avoid getting stopped for being drunk, drving a stolen car or driving without the required licence. Driving stupidly fast to try to impress your passengers. Driving while jetlagged or tired from lack of sleep. Losing your temper and trying to get back at another driver. Doing a u-turn on a busy road when you get lost. Driving when some other circumstance has made you upset or angry. Then you are way safer on the road than the overall stats would suggest.

You forgot: driving at any time when there are other people on the road who may do any of the above.

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Octopus Energy | Sharesies
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networkn

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#1294617 30-Apr-2015 22:17

jpoc:
Talkiet: I'd suggest the extra time you spent on the road dropping your wife off at home and going back for fuel yourself posed a bigger risk of robbing your wife of her husband than of having a refueling fire...

Cheers - N

Look at our accident statistics. If you can avoid: Driving while drunk. Racing the police while trying to avoid getting stopped for being drunk, drving a stolen car or driving without the required licence. Driving stupidly fast to try to impress your passengers. Driving while jetlagged or tired from lack of sleep. Losing your temper and trying to get back at another driver. Doing a u-turn on a busy road when you get lost. Driving when some other circumstance has made you upset or angry. Then you are way safer on the road than the overall stats would suggest.

And how will you be avoiding the other drivers who might have one or more of those conditions?

It feels a little like you are having a piss take session to me.

jpoc

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#1294634 30-Apr-2015 22:31

quandum:

...

By the way do you ever wonder how and when they refuel planes?

No, I do not wonder about that because I know.

Whenever I have refuelled a plane there has been a lead that was connected to the fuel pump. It had a great big croc-clip on the end and you would clip that onto a part of the aircraft that was documented as being connected to the metal parts around the fuel filler opening. You get that all connected up and checked before opening the fuel cap or removing the nozzle from the pump.

For the big stuff with fare paying passengers, the same applies.

Airlines try to ensure that their schedules are such that they refuel aircraft when there are no passengers on board. If that is not possible then they will either temporarily disembark the passengers or, if they leave them aboard, they will require all passengers to unfasten their seatbelts and warn them of a refuelling in progress and tell them to be aware of how to exit the aircraft if a fire occurs.

Those precautions on passenger jets are in place even though jet fuel is way less likely to be ignited by a spark - jet fuel is the same as diesel in those respects.

jpoc

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#1294636 30-Apr-2015 22:35

networkn:

And how will you be avoiding the other drivers who might have one or more of those conditions?

By definition, I would be doing that at a time and place when those high risk drivers would be unlikely to be out and about.

Geektastic

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#1294640 30-Apr-2015 22:47

kiwitrc: I always play it safe and make the kids put their ciggies out before I start to fill up.

Just make them do the filling. Why the heck should you get out in the cold when you have unpaid labour available?!

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Talkiet

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#1294643 30-Apr-2015 22:49

OK, how about this answer. You appear to be the only person here that thinks what the lady did was at all odd...

So either everyone else is wrong about it being dangerous, or you're wrong about it being dangerous.

Now it may well be that you have professional qualifications or experience that mean we're all wrong, but... balance of probabilities, I'm going to go the other way.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

Geektastic

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#1294645 30-Apr-2015 22:51

jpoc: I know that refueling fires are rare but they do happen. If NZ matches European nations proportionally there will be one or two every year or so here. I was filling up one of my cars today. I could have saved a few minutes by going to the pump on the way home from picking my wife up from work but I do not accept filling the tank with passengers in the car so I dropped her off at home and went out to the pumps by myself. As I was there, a young woman pulled up at the pump behind me. I noticed that she had two kids in the back. Both looked to be about 2 years old - perhaps twins. They were in car seats, strapped in nice 'n tight and both were asleep. Realising that their presumed mother was going to fill the tank with the two kiddies sleeping and strapped in in the back seat, I idly wondered if she had already decided which one she loved the most in case of fire. Then she plipped the remote and locked the doors and I understood that she really did not love either of them enough to care about what to do in the event of fire. Do you fill your tank while your friends and family are sitting in the car?

So what do you do if you are on an 8 hour drive and need fuel? Make them stand in the rain while you do it?

People with kids do all kinds of strange things - there was a free baby available in the back of an unlocked car outside our local shop the other day. Just this morning a woman wanting to cross the road stuck the pram she was pushing into the road whilst she stood on the pavement in safety...! Petrol stations are probably the last of the concerns.

jpoc

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#1294654 30-Apr-2015 23:00

surfisup1000:
LennonNZ: Have a read of http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/safety/publications/2005/pdf/Static_Fires.pdf

I took a read....and this is interesting.....

A review of the literature revealed that, between 1993 and 2004, there were 243 reported
incidents of fires breaking out at petrol stations around the world. Although the fires were
claimed to be caused by exploding mobile phones, experts have subsequently revealed that
not one of the incidents was associated with telecommunication equipment.

So, petrol stations ban mobile phone use yet there is no evidence that they cause fires at the pump.

That must be a massive under report. In the nineties, in the UK, there were several cases a month with one particular model of car. That went on for some time before the figures were noticed and a recall was issued and the opening to the fuel tank was redesigned.

When I was living in Germany, a colleague drew my attention to local media reports. Fueling fires were sufficiently common that it was possible to draw conclusions about the behavior of pump operators when a fire broke out. The most common action was to step back away from the vehicle while still holding the nozzle and squeezing the trigger. The result - spraying many more litres of petrol on the the flames was not good and guaranteed a bad experience for anyone inside an affected car.

alasta

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#1294657 30-Apr-2015 23:04

jpoc: Airlines try to ensure that their schedules are such that they refuel aircraft when there are no passengers on board. If that is not possible then they will either temporarily disembark the passengers or, if they leave them aboard, they will require all passengers to unfasten their seatbelts and warn them of a refuelling in progress and tell them to be aware of how to exit the aircraft if a fire occurs.

That was my experience when I boarded an airliner during refuelling a few years ago, and I apply the same policy to motor vehicles. Passengers may remain seated if they have easy egress. I never have children in my car so that's not really an issue.

jpoc

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#1294659 30-Apr-2015 23:05

Geektastic:

So what do you do if you are on an 8 hour drive and need fuel?

The friend who showed me the German media reports had the best advice there. He would always stop at a fuel station with a decent canopy over the pumps and ask his wife if she and the kids would like the get out and stretch their legs. He said that it had never failed for him and it has never failed for me.

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LennonNZ

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#1294671 30-Apr-2015 23:16

hio77:
surfisup1000:
LennonNZ: Have a read of http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/safety/publications/2005/pdf/Static_Fires.pdf

I took a read....and this is interesting.....

A review of the literature revealed that, between 1993 and 2004, there were 243 reported
incidents of fires breaking out at petrol stations around the world. Although the fires were
claimed to be caused by exploding mobile phones, experts have subsequently revealed that
not one of the incidents was associated with telecommunication equipment.

So, petrol stations ban mobile phone use yet there is no evidence that they cause fires at the pump.

i kinda find the mobile phone ban a bit of a joke, in this age, how often are you likely to have an active data session right there in your pocket while your filling up..

There was an episode on myth busters where they tried to cause fire with cellphone and
Failed .

Geektastic

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#1294675 30-Apr-2015 23:34

jpoc:
Geektastic: So what do you do if you are on an 8 hour drive and need fuel?
The friend who showed me the German media reports had the best advice there. He would always stop at a fuel station with a decent canopy over the pumps and ask his wife if she and the kids would like the get out and stretch their legs. He said that it had never failed for him and it has never failed for me.

Just kick back whilst she fills the car. You've got this all wrong...!

andrewNZ

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#1294677 30-Apr-2015 23:59

jpoc:
Geektastic:
So what do you do if you are on an 8 hour drive and need fuel?

The friend who showed me the German media reports had the best advice there. He would always stop at a fuel station with a decent canopy over the pumps and ask his wife if she and the kids would like the get out and stretch their legs. He said that it had never failed for him and it has never failed for me.

I have no stats yo back up my opinion, but I'd guess more people get hit and/or hurt walking across the forecourt , than see a fuel station fire.

There must be somewhere in the vicinity of 1 million cars refueling every single day. I'll take 365 million to one odds.

You think that an operation you have significant and sole control of, is more dangerous than an operation where you must trust hundreds or even thousands of other people to do everything just right.

I personally think you're actually genuinely nuts (sorry).

Jase2985

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#1294695 1-May-2015 05:49

probably more likely to get cancer from the petrol fumes than you are to get caught in a fire at the pump.

if there is a fire at the pump, how many result in death? how many are able to be put out?

I think you are a little paranoid

as for the whole accident on the road thing, in the last 2 years my wife and i have been involved in 4 car accidents, not a single one has been our fault, and one could have potentially caused injury/death, it was luck more than anything that prevented that.

how do we prevent those accidents as they were not our fault? by not driving? unfortunately thats just not an option its a risk you take. Pretty much everything in life is a risk, some more so than others and in this case fueling with people in the car, you are almost more likely to be involved in a plane crash than have this happen to you.

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