WASHINGTON, Oct 6: In an eerie coincidence, two tractor-trailers hauling military ordnance cross-country crashed within 12 hours of each other in Maryland and West Virginia, a military traffic spokesman said on Friday.

“People here are shaking their heads, rolling their eyes,” said John Randt, a spokesman for the Military Traffic Management Command, insisting that “terrorism had nothing to do with it.”

On Thursday at around 2345 GMT, a Tri-State Motor Transit Co. tractor trailer heading west struck a highway median and flipped over near the community of Teays Valley, West Virginia, splitting the trailer open and spilling 19,000 kilograms (42,000 pounds) of bags of explosive powder onto the highway.

None of the powder, used to propel 155-millimetre howitzer artillery shells, was lost, Randt said, when the truck flipped after the driver took a sip of coffee and it went down the wrong pipe.

About 14 hours later, another Tri-State truck, this one carrying eight missiles — “substantial armaments,” said Randt — travelling northeast in a construction area near Myersville, Maryland, hit a construction barrier and careened down an embankment and landed on its side.

“All indications are that it was an accident,” Randt said, adding the Maryland driver had been cited for negligent operation of his vehicle.

Traffic around both accident sites was backed up for hours, Randt said, and they were both evacuated without incident.

The US military contracts with 17 companies to haul 42,000 shipments annually of military ordnance including weapons across the continental 48 states.

“I’ve been on this job for four years and we have about 10 to 12 reportable incidents per year,” most often involving a collision between a truck and another vehicle, Randt said.

“What surprises us is that there were two serious incidents, involving the same company in the space of 12 hours. Every piece of information says it was a coincidence, but we are astonished at the coincidences.”—AFP