Positive Motorcyle Image

[FlyingFinn]

This might be old news to many of you, but I had never heard of this extraordinary hero before and if there ever was a story worth knowing about, this is it.

 

I didn't write any of this, just doing a quick copy-paste to share thie with you. You can google much more detailed versions of the events if you so decide.

 

 

"The Mont Blanc tunnel runs for 7-1/4 miles under the highest mountains in Europe, passing under the Alps to connect France and Italy's highway systems.

 

On March 24th, 1999, a truck loaded with butter and flour caught fire just past the half-way mark, about 3-3/4 miles into the tunnel (750 meters into the "Italian" section). The blaze reached 1830 degrees Fahrenheit and burned for over two days. Of the 50 people trapped in the tunnel when the blaze started, only 12 survived. All 12 of them were saved by an Italian motorcyclist...

 

After several miles, the driver realized something was wrong as cars coming in the opposite direction flashed their headlights at him; a glance in his mirrors showed white smoke coming out from under his cab. This was not yet a dire emergency; there had been 16 other truck fires in the tunnel over the previous 35 years, always extinguished on the spot by the drivers.

 

At 10:55 AM, the tunnel employees triggered the fire alarm and stopped any further traffic from entering. At this point the tunnel was populated by at least 10 cars/vans and 18 trucks that had entered from the French side. A few vehicles from the Italian side passed the truck without stopping. Some of the cars from the French side managed to turn around in the narrow 2-lane tunnel to retreat back to France, but negotiating the road in the dense smoke that had rapidly filled the tunnel quickly made this impossible. The larger trucks didn't have the space to turn around, and reversing out wasn't an option.

 

Most drivers rolled up their windows and waited for rescue. The ventilation system in the tunnel drove toxic smoke back down the tunnel faster than anyone could run to safety. Within minutes, two fire trucks from Chamonix responded. The fire melted the wiring and plunged the tunnel into darkness; in the smoke and with the abandoned, wrecked vehicles blocking their path, the large fire-trucks were unable to proceed. The fire crews instead abandoned their vehicles and took refuge in two of the emergency fire cubicles (fire-door sealed small rooms set into the walls every 500 meters or so). As they huddled behind the fire doors, they could hear the burning fuel roll down the road surface, causing tires to pop and gas tanks to explode. They were rescued five hours later by a third fire crew that responded and reached them via a ventilation duct; of the 15 firefighters that had been trapped, 14 were in serious condition and one (their commanding officer) died in the hospital.

 

27 people died in their vehicles. 10 died trying to escape on foot. Of the initial 50 people trapped by the fire, only 1 dozen survived. The 12 survivors all said the same thing: "That guy on the motorcycle saved my life". It was Pierlucio Tinazzi, a security guard employed by the Italian side.

 

Pierlucio Tinazzi was a security guard at the Italian facility for the Mont Blanc tunnel. Riding back and forth through the tunnel on his motorcycle to keep traffic flowing, dispatching tow trucks and providing motorist assistance as needed. Pierlucio had turned down a promotion to work the control booth at the main Italian office because he preferred to ride over sitting in the office.

 

At the day of the accident Tinazzi had been taking a break, and was getting ready to make a run back through when the fire alarms went off. He had a two-way comm system in his helmet that kept him in contact with the Italian tunnel office. As soon as the word came, he grabbed breathing equipment and drove his BMW K75 back into the tunnel.

 

As he came across people trying to get out, he stopped and told them to stay low, stick against the wall (where the fresh air ducts fed up) and keep moving, stopping only to breath at the ducts. He rode on into the hell that was the tunnel fire, through the smoke.

 

Most of the truckers close to the fire suffocated or were poisoned by the gases within minutes. Tinazzi peered among the dead and found the occasional survivor. He'd put them on the back of the bike and slalom back out the French side as fast as possible, bringing out victim after victim, then going back for the next one.

 

On Tinazzi's fifth trip into the tunnel, he came across Maurice Lebras, a French truck driver who was unconscious but still alive. Too big and unwieldy to get onto the back of the bike unconscious, Tinazzi refused to abandon him. Instead he wrestled Maurice into fire refuge shelter 20 and closed the door.

 

The original fire doors were rated to survive for two hours. Some had been upgraded in the 34 years since the tunnel was built to survive for four hours, but niche 20 wasn't one of them. Not that it mattered, the fire would burn for over fifty hours and it would be over five days before the tunnel cooled sufficiently for anyone to go back in. The fire was so hot that the rock that forms the interior of the mountain was permanently changed in chemical form. To say it was hellish would be a gross understatement.

 

Pierlucio's BMW melted right into the pavement a few yards from refuge shelter 20.

 

March 24th is the anniversary of Pierlucio Tinazzi's incredible heroism and tragic death, all bikers around the world are asked to carry a flower in remembrance if they ride that day... To remember the bravest biker hero you probably have never heard of before"

 

http://whootis.com/Pierlucio%20Tinazzi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierlucio_Tinazzi

 

--

Mikko

 

 

[Marty Hill]

What an amazing story! Thanks for posting as I'm sure 99.9% of us would never had known this story.

[Paul Mihalka]

Amazing story, I've read it before. That is my definition of a hero.

Problem is that anybody who reads the story thinks of him as a hero, not as a motorcyclist hero, while the image of a noisy wildly riding motorcyclist does influence the opinions formed on all motorcyclists. I think courtesy actions like letting a car in front of us, stopping for walkers, wave at kids, wave at the guy/gal on the lawn tractor, wave at joggers/walkers, may help a bit.

[upflying]

I have had several meetings with the Patriot Guard Riders..all positive.

http://www.patriotguard.org/

[Rinkydink]

I think courtesy actions like letting a car in front of us, stopping for walkers, wave at kids, wave at the guy/gal on the lawn tractor, wave at joggers/walkers, may help a bit.

 

Couldn't have said it any better Mr. Mihalka....