In America:

1) You MUST turn off your engine.

2) You MUST turn off your cell phone

3) You should not enter or exit your car lest you make electrostatic sparks.

These are serious hazards.

I was pumping some fuel, observing all the rules, when I noticed other vehicles pulling up (some people talking on cell phones), with hot engines running, people getting in and out, others starting their engines... all closer to where I was pumping than the engine and passenger compartment of my own car. Stupidity. Arrgghhhhh...

I always follow the rules. I would hate to blow myself up without knowing about it.

i read somewhere that the chances of your cell phone causing an explosion at a gas station is next to nil.

But a lot higher for, than the odds of you existing in the first place..

My point is, go ahead. Turn your engine off, etc... That's fine. Just look around at all the sources of sparks and heat coming and going right next to you...

My point is, go ahead. Turn your engine off, etc... That's fine. Just look around at all the sources of sparks and heat coming and going right next to you...

If that's your point, then why didn't you say something to these idiots? I always do. I have no problem with someone blowing themself up, but if it's going to take me out as well, that's a different issue entirely.

Sometimes if you leave your engine running there are some people that take the advantage and steal your car while your filling it up! So that's another reason to shut it off before fueling up.

Oh forget it.

You can't even pump your own gas in Oregon. It's illegal. I remember the first time I came across this. I was probably 14 or 15 and was driving across country with my dad. We stopped in Oregon to gas up and I hopped out to be helpful and pump the gas. I grab the nozzle and start looking for the switch to turn it on. My dad looks at me but doesn't say anything. Pretty soon the attendant shows up and grabs the nozzle from my hands and gives me a furious look like I'd just shit on his grandmother's grave or something.

People are freaks in Oregon.
No sales tax either.

Oh forget it.
Superluminal I am puzzled. I take this to mean you are abandoning your own thread. Why? Five people posted here: four of them were in agreement with you and the fifth was implicitly asking for clarification of the risks. Paraphrased here was the sequence.

CC: True. I wont take the chance.
CS: Is it really that risky?
Op: Yes it is.
SL: My point is look at the other idiots
GL: Agreed. But don't just look, take action.
CT: Agreed. There is also a security aspect to this.

So, why 'forget it'?

Actually, this thread has reminded me of another bizzare gas station experience of mine. A few summers back I decided to go on a road trip travelling from my home here near Niagara Falls Ontario to the New Jersey coast. Anyways, maybe 6 hours later, somewhere in the eastern Pennsylvania hills I stop to fill up. I was confronted by a sign on the pump notifying me that I have to pay first. I started laughing. It had to be a joke. The attendant guy got stressed when I was trying to rip the sign off and came out. He then told me it was serious. Absolutely amazing bizzare stuff. lol

My point was, under normal circumstances, while you sit there following the safety rules, other cars are coming and going normally, also following the safety rules. I am fueling at a pump, and a car pulls up to the pump behind me - all perfectly normally, no idiots involved - with his engine running not 4 feet from where I am (until he shuts it off to start fueling, naturally). Therefore I find the safety rules, ipso facto, to be absurd and just for show. Who's with me! Let's rebel!!!

Another thing. All pumps I go to warn me that continued exposure to gasoline fumes will give me cancer. Now, all pumps come with a latching mechanism, however, most I run across have it removed, forcing me to stand there, holding the pump handle, sucking fumes. Pisses me off.

superluminal,

You're brain is working at subluminal speed if you think disobeying these rules will make you a rebel. The rules are there to cover possible scenarios. They do serve a reason. I'm no hardcore facist, but I'm glad we have these type of rules. I'm particularly happy that the police (in my area anyways) can now charge people for talking on their cell's while driving. It's scary enough with complete idiot, SUV-driving soccer-moms out there endangering us (to say nothing of destroying the environment) with their poor driving skills, let alone driving while yapping.

Does any one see the point here but me? If it's unsafe to use a blowtorch within 10 feet of a bucket of gasoline, would it be Ok to wander by 4 feet away with one as long as you shut it off within a few seconds?

So glaucon, how many stupid rules are you willing to put up with in the name of your own safety, to cover possible scenarios? You may want to live in a society of mindless robots, guided by the rules of the few who certainly know better than you do. Not me.

BTW, do the police charge people in your area for driving while:

- Drinking a Coke
- Fiddling with the radio
- Eating a snack
- Conversing with passengers
- Fixing their hair in the rearview mirror
- Hunting for a CD in the center console
- Fumbling with a map
- Lighting up a cigarette
- Shouting at the kids to SHUT UP

Your arguments against cell phone use while driving are simplistic and have been shown to have no merit. In my area, the "cell phone use while driving" ban was repealed. Maybe it's just peoples poor driving skills that are the real problem.

Well, I know that some people won't condsider this a source, but Men's Health ran a 'by the numbers' on cell phones in their March 2005 issue. I thought i might pull some stuff from it:

- Two in three men talk on the phone will driving.

- While talking on the cell phone, men have one in eight odds of rear-ending someone.

- One in two men talk have used their cell phones will pumping gas.

- Odds of a spark from the phone's battery igniting gass are described as 'infinitesimal'.

That being said, I think that most of these rules we've been talking about are designed to protect other people from someone's stupidity.

Your arguments against cell phone use while driving are simplistic and have been shown to have no merit. In my area, the "cell phone use while driving" ban was repealed. Maybe it's just peoples poor driving skills that are the real problem.

LOL
I never stated an argument against cell phone use while driving. You should learn how to identify an argument. Anyways, I do see your point. It is ridiculous to regulate people turning off these devices while within a few feet while at the very same time, someone can drive right up, even while on the cell phone. The only situation that would satisfy your (correct) recognition of the silliness here would be to have a zone of say, 30 feet, within which, no electronic devices were allowed to be running. This would leave us with the problem of getting the gas to the car, but hey, we could always make the hoses longer (but that simply leaves us in the same situation). Now, the real problem is this: just because people choose to ignore a regulation does not mean that there is something wrong with the regulation. That would be faulty logic. Annyways, you're right, the rules are absurd. There are absurd rules everywhere we go. Such is life in a regulated society.

There's a programme on SBS called 'mythbusters'. I think they pretty much proved the whole 'mobile phones blowing up petrol stations' was just an urban legend.
Fires start from static electricity... ie when people start pumping petrol, get back in the car to wait, build up static on the car seat, get out and dont discharge static before grabbing the petrol nozzle... Boom. Thats one of the reasons why the auto-fill latch has been removed from pumps in most petrol stations!
Interestingly enough, according to their stats its mostly women who are guilty of getting back in the car while waiting... Another reason why women shouldn't be allowed to drive... (except when i need a ride home from the pub)

In America:

1) You MUST turn off your engine.

2) You MUST turn off your cell phone

3) You should not enter or exit your car lest you make electrostatic sparks.



4) no smoking

It happens, no joke.

That's one I happen to agree with.

Don't wear nylon if your thighs are so fat they rub together. :)
Could happen!!

That's one I happen to agree with.

you and me both.

I've actually thrown a lit cigarette into a can of gasoline and nothing happened. For gasoline to be ignited by a cigarette, the cigarette has to be pretty hot and the gas has to be evaporating quite quickly (because it is actually the gasoline vapor that burns).

Just dont be an idiot and light a road flare while pumping gas. Im sure somebody has already, Im just warning you.

Does anyone in a state that permits firearms know if there are no-firearms regulations at gas stations?

your not alowed to wave a gun around anywhere, but they dont care if your fueling up the truck before you off hunting

I've seen kids sitting in cars playing video games or listening to their portable stereos while Dad pumps the gas. Bad, bad, BAD! I want to see some punishment!

.....or there are other hazards like the incompotent people that drive off with the fuel hose still attached to the fuel plug draging half the bowser down the freeway. !

or the people that actually drive into the fuel bowser when pulling into the petrol station. ! hahaha

Accidents happen because stupid people do not assess the fact that we make mistakes and live their lives blind to eventualities.