[JonInMiddleGA]

Interesting thread & reaction to personal fireworks.

Last night we lit off maybe a couple of dozen of sparklers (some of them were "fountains"? Basically sent little "jellybeans" of color silently about 2-3 feet up.)
First time in my lifetime AFAIK that they were legal in Georgia. Fun for what it was, got a pretty good reaction from my 7 y/o, who is actually a bit of a fireworks snob after seeing so many displays at WDW, I think he just got a kick out of being in such proximity even though they're pretty tiny.

Still, right on cue, here's the headline story of today's AJC

Tanker overturns after people throw rocks, fireworks
Crowd climbs atop cab after wreck in southwest Atlanta

By MIKE MORRIS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/05/05

A tanker truck wreck that prompted the evacuation of a northwest Atlanta apartment complex was apparently caused by kids throwing rocks, concrete and fireworks at the big rig.

The truck driver, Rafael Diaz, 29, of Woodstock, told investigators that a group of 8 to 11 juveniles were standing beside the road shooting off firecrackers, Atlanta police Sgt. Kevin Iosty said.

As Diaz drove by, the group threw rocks and chunks of concrete at the truck and shot fireworks at the tractor-trailer.

"One of the fireworks entered the cab, striking [Diaz] in the head and exploding," Iosty said.

Diaz, who was hauling 7,500 gallons of diesel fuel from a Powder Springs fuel depot to a truck stop about a mile away at I-285, lost control of the tanker, and the eastbound truck careened across the westbound lanes and jumped the curb.

The truck smashed a fire hydrant and went down an embankment and across a parking lot before overturning in a stand of pine trees. The top of the truck's cab was sheared off in the accident.

Diaz, a driver for Penn Tank Lines, was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in serious condition, Iosty said.

Atlanta Fire Department spokeswoman Jolene Butts Freeman said that when firefighters arrived, "people were actually standing on top of tanker once it was overturned."

She said she didn't know why the crowd of as many as 50 people climbed atop the flipped truck.

"It's something out of a movie," said Freeman. "Why they were on top of the tanker, it beats me. They were just all climbing on top."

Firefighters evacuated part of a nearby apartment complex, and some residents were still out of their homes at daybreak.

Freeman said that only about 20 gallons of diesel fuel leaked from the tanker, and a second truck was brought in to offload the remaining fuel.

Police were investigating reports that rocks were thrown at other vehicles along the stretch road formerly known as Bankhead Highway earlier in the evening. At daybreak, several chunks of concrete, some nearly as big as a football, still littered the road.

"I can't imagine why anyone, one, would be throwing rocks at a vehicle traveling down the street, and two, why they were throwing fireworks -- it's just not a way to celebrate the Fourth of July -- they have endangered someone's life," Freeman said.

Police had opened all but one westbound lane of the roadway by 7 a.m., but the clean-up of the wreckage continued throughout the morning.