This might not have made national news, but if you live in the Chicago area, you might have heard about a garbage truck explosion over the weekend. Or, if you actually lived in or were visiting the suburb of Arlington Heights, where the explosion occurred, you might actually have heard the explosion itself and not known what it was.
Apparently, according to reports from residents of Arlington Heights and a few other surrounding towns, it was loud.
First responders, including local firefighters and police, were in the process of answering a call about a vehicle fire. The vehicle was a garbage truck operated by Groot Waste Management, and it was powered by two compressed natural gas (CNG) cylinders.
The fire wasn't caused by the CNG directly. However, the fire went on to cause one of the CNG tanks to explode. Two police officers and one firefighter who had been responding to the fire were injured by the explosion. The injuries were thankfully not life threatening, but all three were taken to a local hospital following the incident. They also suffered concussions.
Debris from the truck itself, as well as exploding bits of the CNG canister, damaged homes and rained down in a two-block radius of where the truck was located.
Someone in the neighborhood later shared their doorbell-cam video of the explosion with local news outlet WGN. You'd probably be freaked out if this happened in your area, too.
Unfortunately, this isn't an isolated incident. In February 2024, Los Angeles firefighters responded to a semi truck that was on fire, only to have one of the two massive CNG tanks powering said semi truck explode. Nine of those firefighters ended up hospitalized that time. Months later, seven of those injured firefighters went on to file a lawsuit against multiple parties involved with the exploding semi, alleging negligence.
In October 2024, a UPS tractor trailer powered by CNG completely burned up on I-77 in North Carolina, reported the Charlotte Fire Department. This incident didn't injure anyone, thanks to the quick thinking of the truck driver, who identified the problem early on. He then managed to pull over and keep the vehicle a safe distance from people, as well as himself a safe distance from the vehicle before the fire spread.
Charlotte Fire Department first responders were also able to cool the CNG tanks down according to established procedures, and also check that the relief valves were in good working order. Neither of the CNG tanks exploded in this case, unlike the other two 2024 incidents mentioned above.
All three of these incidents involve trucks, and all three of these incidents happened in the US. But the US is far from the only place where CNG vehicles are in use.
They've been a thing in Malaysia for many years, but the Malaysian Transport Minister announced in early November 2024 that they're going to be phased out starting on July 1, 2025. The reason? Safety concerns, like the ones evidenced above. More broadly, natural gas vehicles (NGVs) in general will be phased out; not only CNG-powered ones.
In the case of Malaysia, there are currently trucks, buses, taxis, and other vehicles powered by NGV fuels that will be affected by this change. The government of Nigeria has reportedly been watching these events unfold in Malaysia with interest, since it, too, has been pushing a "Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative." It turns out that saving money (and maybe the environment, too) is an international shared interest; who knew?
That's Great, But What Does It Have To Do With Powersports?
Earlier in 2024, massive Indian OEM Bajaj unveiled its first-ever CNG-powered motorbike, the Bajaj Freedom 125. So far, the response has been very positive, and the company has said that it plans to release additional CNG-powered bikes based on the Freedom platform in the not-too-distant future.
As riders of things with two wheels, there's a certain level of risk that's both inherent and also well understood by those of us who choose to ride. So the question here is, at what point is the risk acceptable, and at what point is it too great?
For me, it's the explosion part that seems a bit alarming. People crash, vehicles catch fire, all kinds of bad things can happen on all kinds of vehicles, regardless of how they're fueled. But they don't tend to explode all that often. Obviously, the CNG tanks involved in bikes like these won't be as large as the ones on semis or other larger vehicles, but it's still a little worrying.
What do you think, though? Are CNG bikes an excellent and much-needed technological change, or does the thought of potential explosions if a very specific set of events occurs in a crash put you off just a little? Let me know in the comments below.
