Just don't use the other hand to smoke a cigarette
Massachusetts motorists by the millions will want to applaud the Board of Fire Prevention Regulators come January 1st as multi-tasking while filling up at your local self-serve gas station will get a whole lot more comfortable.
For the first time in a generation, drivers will be allowed to use hold open clips so you don't have to keep one hand on the squeeze handle to keep the gas flowing.
Self-serve gas stations were also banned in Massachusetts until the mid-1970s and the ban on hold open clips coincided with the relaxing of regulations allowing such stations.
So for some of us, this could be our first time using them. Hence this instructional video:
I asked AFD Assistant Chief Lindsay Stromgren if he had any concerns about this new development and he said he brought it up at a recent Hampshire County Chiefs meeting and nobody seemed alarmed.
Although he was quick to add, "But I'm sure we'll see some unique cases in the next year or so."
Executive Office of Public Safety and Security
15 comments:
Only state in the country that had this ridiculous law. Everyone will survive just fine. The rest of the country does.
Gee, I guess you don't remember the big accident that happened in S. Amherst that got them banned in Amherst. How quickly they forget.
Actually I don't.
I believe they have been banned for as long as there have been self serve stations in Amherst.
Now everyone will set the nozzle and head into the convenience store ignoring the long lines of cars just waiting for gas!
We need express lanes (for those of us that just want to pump and go)
Gas is $3.55 in Chicopee
$3.45 with their card
Can't forget quickly what never existed. Massachusetts banned these clips since self-serve gas pumps were first permitted 40 years ago. Has nothing to do with any accident in S Amherst. Fear not. The odds of an accident because of clips is rare to none. 48 other states have had them for many years and very few accidents have occurred, and when they do it's usually because of stupidity and that, no clip can fix. And clip or not, it's not gonna stop someone from going into the store to buy something. Spend ten minutes at Cumberland waiting for a pump spot and you'll soon realize clips have little to do with people leaving their cars while they shop.
Readers Digest did a story on an Amherst family: "The Dangers Of Eating With A Fork."
Or pee.
I remember using the open hold clip at a self serve. Granted I wasn't able to use it for long before they were banned but I do remember using one for a bit. Glad to hear they are coming back! It's so much easier. Especially in the winter!
Strange... I definitely remember using the clips at the Cumberland Farms both on Belchertown Road and further down Rt 9 closer to the bridge. I'm from elsewhere so had no idea they were banned - I assumed I was just being stupid when I couldn't get clips at other stations to work. Just the other day I was at one of those Cumberland Farms stations wondering why I couldn't get the clip to work. I wonder if they didn't know the clips were banned either.
Can't be.
Gas is $3.55 in Chicopee
$2.79 in Seabrook, NH...
This actually is a smart decision because while the clips (which come with the equipment and have to be removed) will release, this is often not the case when a foreign object (eg gas cap) is used to wedge the lever open.
THAT is a problem -- THAT causes the multi-gallon gasoline spills that are kinda scary.
The other thing that annoys me to no end -- the MA Fire Marshall says (and I read the memo) that this stuff about a cell phone igniting gasoline is urban legend and totally unfounded -- while the NH Fire Marshall considers it so much a real concern that -- in NH -- the gas station has to shut down the pump if they see a cell phone in someone's hand.
OK guys, you both can't be right on this -- the laws of physics don't change when you cross a state line. Just saying....
What happened in S. Amherst that supposedly got them banned here?
The GasLand spill was caused by leaking underground tanks and a high water table.
Post should've said Chicopee $2.55
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