Tens of thousands had to be evacuated when explosions at a petrochemical plant rocked through Jilin, China. And that is not the worst thing caused by this disaster. Not by a longshot.
Chemicals seeped into China’s Songhua River, then into the Amur River at the China-Russia border, where benzene levels were measured at 108 times as high as standard safety levels, and eventually into the Pacific Ocean. A blockage in one of the plant’s nitration towers caused the explosions, according to World Atlas.
It's Supposed to Go UP!
That's a satellite, and it's on the ground. A satellite, something that is meant to be shot up into space, should never “topple over” as seen here. It's a satellite worth almost three hundred million dollars for the Noaa-N, and as you can see, it's a bit top-heavy.
We don't know how costly this mistake was, but we do know the salary of the technician who caused this accident probably won't be able to just write a check to cover the damages. Maybe strap it down next time, guys.
All Right. On Three, Everybody Lift
Driving a sleek, sexy sports car is fun and all, but you have to remember that they're aerodynamic for a reason. They're small, they're narrow, and they're low to the ground, which means you can pretty easily get them wedged under a bus if you're tailgating, which seems to have been what happened in this picture.
What are you supposed to do about that? Get a bunch of really strong guys and have them all lift the bus as the tow truck winches the car backward? Good luck with that. The lesson to take from this one is to pay attention to the red lights on the backs of other vehicles.
Not Exactly Among the Clouds
It's a little hard to tell (we aren't aircraft experts) but it looks like there are a few military planes down there in the foam. Yeah, that's foam, and no, it isn't supposed to be there. It's fire-suppressing foam, but it doesn't seem like there was a fire.
We don't know all the details, but we know it was an accident. It's just foam, you might be thinking – how much damage could it really do? Well, it's still a chemical, and as you can tell, there is a whole lot of it. Just cleanup will take days if not weeks or even months, and who knows what those chemicals can do to the sensitive electronics in those million-dollar aircraft?
That's Your Half, This Is Mine
This dangerous split wasn't due to a sibling squabble. Instead, it was that crane that divided this house. Cranes are big and heavy, and they need the right support, or they might...well...you see.
People who drive cranes and use them around are taught over and over to make sure they're stable and won't tip over, otherwise, you get things like this that cost a bundle – and a lot of time it's the people who were working the cranes that have to pay up. Thankfully, these kinds of accidents are few and far between, but when they happen, they really do happen.
This One Is Understandable, Honestly
If you're confused about what's going on, you're not alone. The person who owned that Jeep was probably flabbergasted, too. The Jeep was parked on top of a self-hiding garage, and the owner might not have even noticed.
All that aside, this is still pretty rough. The engine and wheel look like they didn't take very much damage, but it's not like you can squeeze yourself inside all that twisted metal and broken glass and drive to work. No doubt the owner is going to be far more careful about where he or she parks in the future, as they should be.
Going Down
This airplane's engine failed and it started burning mid-air, which might make for a cool scene to watch in a Hollywood movie, yet it's never a desirable situation in real-life. Luckily, planes are actually a lot safer than what we tend to think.
Crashes don't happen that often, but when they do, the price one must have to pay to have them fixed or replaced altogether is worth a king's ransom.
Third Time's A Charm?
During its glory days, this beautiful, purple Lamborgino Diablo belonged to a rock star. Jay Kay, the lead vocalist of the rock band "Jamiroquai" is worth a lot more than any of us can imagine. The car was even featured in one of the band's music videos.
A tragic accident forced the star to get himself a new, identical one, that cost about half a million pounds. The second one was again ruined, this time when a camera fell on its windshield and broke it. We hope he didn't get the third one but moved on to other car models.
Oopsy, No Internet for Months
That's the face of a guy who doesn't understand that he's in trouble. He ruined many people's day. His boss, the other people working on the job site, and the people who just lost their internet. They aren't going to get it back for a couple of months – just look at how much cord got pulled out thanks to his thoughtless drilling
Is the guy just trying to get the cords untangled? He'd better start working faster – not a lot of daylight left. Maybe he's trying to come up with the best place to hide out until all this blows over. Good luck, mate.
Money Shouldn't Go in the Microwave!
If you've ever wanted to see what it looks like when you microwave a big stack of cash, now is your chance. These are five thousand Canadian dollars, and they look like that because someone tried to stick them in the microwave to “disinfect” them.
Why was it infected? And what made this person think putting it in the microwave is a good way to undo the infection? Microwaves are good for defrosting food, but you can't exactly clean things inside them. Maybe the person in question was just trying to dry it out after washing it in the sink, which raises further questions.
The Very Real Molasses Flood
Accidents have always been the type of occurrence that walks the fine line between comic and tragic. This 1919 flood is a prime example of that. On the one hand, this disaster destroyed many buildings and cars in Boston. It even took the lives of 21 people.
On the other, the cause for this costly conundrum is no other than a tank filled with molasses, a honey supplement. The molasses tank burst on the 15th of January 1919 and flooded Boston city. It took weeks to clean, and over a year to get rid of the syrupy smell all over town.
It's Just Wine...Right?
If you've spent enough time around bottles of wine, you know these two things: The first is that they can get pretty expensive, the second is that they can break. When you put those two facts together, you can come up with a pretty expensive slip-up.
The empty glass bottle you see in this picture is a sixteen hundred dollar bottle of Victory in Europe, 1945 Château Mouton Rothschild. Looking at wine prices, that lands it somewhere in the top ten bottles of wine ever produced, maybe even in the top five. We've all hit the bottle after a hard day, but this is something else entirely.
An Eight Million Car Crash
That's not one, not two, but THREE incredibly expensive-looking Ferraris that are sitting on the shoulder of a highway smashed to pieces. This picture is part of what was called a “Supercar crash” that totaled three point eight million dollars in damages.
Of all the cars involved with the accident, there were eight total Ferraris, three Mercedes-Benz, one Lamborghini Diablo, a Nissan Skyline...and a Toyota Prius. It all started when one of the Ferraris tried to pass the Prius on the highway. No one was seriously hurt, but there were numerous minor injuries.
Anybody? Anybody With an Explanation?
It took us a little while to figure out what exactly we are looking at here, but eventually, we got it solved: The big circular thing is an MRI, which uses super-powerful magnets to scan inside the body. Someone seems to have left a metal cart in the room, and as soon as the MRI got turned on it attracted the metal cart with the speed of a thousand nurses.
They'll have to call in specialists to demagnetize the entire machine. This will take a lot of time, and a lot of money, The estimated cost? Something like five million dollars. All because of a metal cart.
The Freeway Isn't That Free Anymore
If you're trying to think of the worst thing that could happen to you on your commute, you might not think of a bunch of potatoes all over the road, with many workers trying to pick them up. But alas, it is exactly what happened to those who took this cursed route to work.
Luckily, it seems like at this point they almost have it under control, but someone will have to pay for all of these wasted potatoes. One potato by itself may not be that pricy, but when you put thousands of them together, that's a different story.
This Never Happens, I Swear
This picture is a little bit blasé compared to some of the others on this list, but we imagine you wouldn't appreciate it if you stepped outside, ready to drive to work only to find out your car is covered in cement.
It's very likely that the cement seeped inside the hood of the car, messing with the engine, the transmission, the drive chain, and lots of other pieces. At the very least, the headlights won't work, and you can't legally drive in most places without headlights.
Sunk Cost
It may look like this is something from a nature documentary that has colorful snakes crawling out of a lake, but look closer and you'll see the expensive truth. Thanks to a train that derailed in Montana, three Boeing 737 airplanes were wrecked, having rolled down a hillside and into the water.
Each one of those fuselages (there were six in total) cost millions of dollars, not to mention all the other aircraft components the train was carrying at the same time. It's impossible for anyone (especially us) to figure out how much the accident cost in total, but it's going to be an eye-popping number no matter what.
Crying Over Spilled Wine
Was it an earthquake? A poorly made wine shelf? Someone in the next room banging on the wall? Whatever the reason, this wine aficionado isn't looking forward to the cleanup required for this job.
While it looks like some of them survived, plenty more met their end on the floor as the man and a dog looked on. Ladies and gentlemen, tonight, raise your glasses to all the lost liquor that we see in this image. And maybe spare a sip for the guy who installed the wine rack, because he's about to get an earful.
Dogs and Cars Don't Mix
Porsches are some of the nicest – and most expensive – cars on the market, so the person who owns this one was probably pretty careful. He just didn't expect his Malinois (a Belgian sheepherding dog, related to the German Shepherd) to go to town on the wheel-well in such a way.
What would possess a pooch to attack a man's car, and with so much specificity? Did the other areas of the car receive the same kind of attention, or was it just the one wheel? The Malinois probably thought he was in heaven – he didn't even have to chase the car to give it a taste.
Cruise Ship Wrecked
How much do you think cruise ships cost to build? If you guessed five hundred million dollars...you're wrong. It's probably closer to ONE BILLION DOLLARS.
Now, they don't have to rebuild it from scratch, but we have to imagine the owners of the ship saw a big explosion of dollar signs when this cruise ship went down. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but a gray cloud's silver lining still has a lot of gray inside it. Cruise ships are sometimes called “Fun Ships” but not all the time.
No More Lives Left
This isn't much of a mistake – unless someone left their fancy votive candle on too long. House fires are always tragedies, but even when there's no damage done to the people, there's always a great chance for property damage. Including, as we see in this set of pictures, an entire game room that went up in flames.
Two thousand games were burned! Even at market price, that's a good chunk of change. But the classic video game market has grown lately, meaning that an extensive collection could be worth so much more.
Fish Out Of Water
What are we seeing here exactly? You asked and we'll provide you with all of the answers. This picture was taken in 1955 in Jutland, Denmark.
A big lorry was transporting herrings, but it took a bit more than what it could actually handle. The lorry ended up tipping over, spilling 15 tons of fish into a nearby garden. This accident was pricey, smelly, and probably a nightmare to clean.
A Sea Cemetry
Somehow, an entire backhoe sank in the sand, all the way up to the top of the cabin. We aren't sure of all the details, but it's likely someone left it there overnight, unaware that the tide would come in and soften the sand.
Well, they've now learned well enough. They're going to have to call a few similar vehicles to dig this one out, and in the meantime, we get to gaze upon it like it's a collection of bones from a huge undersea creature. A prehistoric beast that has finally revealed itself.
A Bad Trade
We know that it's a bit difficult looking at this picture and figuring out exactly what there is to see. Here's what happened: the black thing in the water on the right is a boat worth three hundred thousand dollars, and it's sinking.
The people in the boat next to it are trying to save it, but keep looking to the left and you'll see both a Jeep and a pickup in the water. The owner used them to try and save his sinking boat but ended up flooding both of them. Even if both of those vehicles together don't add up to $300,000, it still seems like all the hassle of getting them replaced wasn't worth it just to save a boat.
James Bond Needs to Call His Insurance
Aston Martins are some incredibly expensive cars. Pound for pound is probably the MOST expensive, and even though there may be single models that are pricier, the Aston Martins have a history of putting out the best cars in the world.
This is why this ride, which has been torn to shreds, is no longer worth the more than one-and-a-half million pounds sterling that it once was. What it's worth now isn't for us to decide. We do know that you can't exactly use it to drive away from assailants with the missile codes anymore. All that from a single post.
Where We're Going, We Won't Need Roads!
If you're a fan of classic movies or classic cars, you can probably recognize this vehicle. Yes, it's none other than a DeLorean, a car that was destined for the junk heap of history until the movie “Back to the Future” placed it firmly in pop culture for years to come.
It looks like somebody overloaded their Mr. Fusion and melted the engine, which is behind the seats. How much will it cost? Well, a good-condition DeLorean will run you between thirty-five and forty-five grand, so getting this fixed up might be climbing past ten thousand. Great Scott indeed, Doc.
Knock Knock
At the largest building in the Tulsa County Fairgrounds, the driver of a dump truck lost control of his vehicle and smashed it into the wall. He was inside the building since he had been helping to fill the building with dirt for a BMX event. It's unknown how exactly it happened, but the cabin of the vehicle got through before the lifted bed of the truck slammed into the wall.
We're talking not only damage to the truck itself, but quite a lot of damage to the building – the walls, the windows, the garage door, the road outside, and probably plenty more.
Well, There's Your Problem Right There
Cars can be complicated sometimes, but that doesn't mean all of the problems they have are pricey to fix. It's pretty simple to change your own oil or rotate your own tires. With this though...we think you're going to need a new truck.
We aren't experts, but having your truck hang off the cab in such a way seems detrimental to the driving experience. It almost looks like it's supposed to do that...but why on Earth would someone build a truck that does that? And then they went and filled the bed with all those heavy tires, too. It's like they were asking for trouble.
Makes Mowing Harder, Too
Imagin just going outside to your garden one day and finding a massive hole. This is exactly what happende to those who live in Egremont Cumbria, England. How does such a thing happen over night, you ask? Well, apparently an old mine shaft that was under this house just opened up.
Not only is this home now too dangerous to live in, but the property value has now sunk deeper than the mine itself. Insurance doesn't cover geological problems, so they're up the creek there as well.
That's Not Where Boats Go
The first picture here looks perfect. You're looking at a high-speed ferry that is cruising just the way it should. The second picture is what happens when a high-speed ferry hits a reef at high-speed.
Even the most land-locked fool can figure out the issue here – boats belong in the water. There were a total of 157 passengers and six crew members on the ship when it ran aground, but it seems as if no one was badly hurt. Keep them in the water from now on, yeah?
Aren't They Supposed to Stay on the Track?
They are supposed to stay on the track, yes. What you're looking at is just one of many hundreds of pictures of the Chatsworth Train Collision, which occurred in 2008. It's one of the costliest train crashes in history, costing Metrolink at least five hundred million dollars in losses.
It all happened for the same reason so many other accidents have happened – a driver (in this case a train conductor) was looking at his messages and ignored a red signal. The result is a cautionary tale about paying attention when you're in control of a vehicle.
You Might Have Felt It
On Wiehltal Bridge in Germany, a car crashed into a tanker truck carrying thirty-two thousand liters of fuel. Highly flammable, explosive fuel. Which is why August 26th, 2004 was the date of one of the largest accidental explosions in history.
The huge explosion demolished the entire bridge, as well as numerous vehicles. Just the cost of repairing and rebuilding the bridge was equivalent to three-hundred and fifty-eight million dollars. But don't forget about the vehicles. That much fuel has also got to cost a pretty penny.
That Does Not Look Good
What on Earth are we looking at? It looks like a destroyed spaceship! This is an accident that took place in the far away continet of Australia.
A semi-trailer that had a load of processed meat on it, overturned and then chaos ensued. This happende in June 2006 and we bet it cost a handfull of austrlian dollar to fix. Not to mention all of the meat that created a large puddle on the road and has just gone to waste.
A Bridge to Nowhere
This is the Choluteca Bridge, built between 1935-37 in Choluteca, Honduras. Considered to be one of the greatest works of architecture in the country. So what's going on here? Well, this picture was taken right after Hurricane Mitch, in 1998.
The hurricane spared the bridge itself, but not only did the roads on either side of the bridge get washed away, but the river the bridge spanned was also redirected and carved itself a new path. As such, the bridge has been known as “The Bridge to Nowhere.” The cost was immense, but eventually, the bridge found its way back into use in 2003.
More Than One Vehicle Was Lost
In September 2019, the cargo ship “Golden Ray” set off on its final voyage. Nobody knew it was going to be the final voyage, but it was. It was carrying forty-two hundred cars when it departed from the Port of Brunswick, Georgia, but an uneven load tipped it over before it had even departed from view.
It tipped on its side and beached itself on St. Simons Island. As you can see from the pictures, it was pretty much a total loss, with the vehicles inside the cargo totally destroyed. The salvage has only just finished, after almost two years of work.
Just Turn on the Windshield
This picture looks like the kind of thing that happens in Grand Theft Auto. But it's a real thing that really happened – it took place in Kowloon City, Hong Kong, and it involved a two-person helicopter and a full-sized city bus.
Luckily, this accident resulted in no deaths – the helicopter had a father and his son, and both escaped without much more than a few minor injuries. The bus was parked and empty, so the only cost associated with the accident is the damage to the vehicles and the area. We would REALLY like to know how this happened, but we only have a few hours.
A Massive Storm
Even huge things like oil rigs have to be taken apart when their time is up. No, most of them don't actually end up right alongside graveyards such as we see here – this was due to a massive storm striking the oil rig and the tugboats escorting it.
Crew members were forced to release the rig in order to keep themselves from being wrecked, and the storm and the waves pushed the rig far off-course, allowing it to visit the graveyard. It smashed against the shore and did plenty of damage to the graveyard. That's bad, but at the very least, the rig itself was already slated for destruction.
Wrong Place, Wrong Time
This poor fire truck has definitely seen better days. On one September morning, it was called to look into a flood. After locating the safety hazard, the driver accidentally found himself backing right into it.
Luckily no men were harmed, but we bet rescuing the truck cost a lot, not to mention having to get a whole new truck to make up for this completely ruined one.
They Built It On Sand
So what's going on here? This is what happens when a transfer slab collapses through several floors as the builders are pouring concrete in. Amazingly, no one was hurt, but the costs are huge for the contracting company, and it will also mean move-in delays for people who were waiting to live there.
It's always faster to build something brand new, meaning this had a huge cost. The workers will have to get rid of everything that is anything other than perfect, and they'll also have to check all of the other transfer slabs to make sure there are no issues.
The Dead of Winter
Anybody who lives in a cold-weather area knows that snow is a huge problem and causes issues ranging from unsafe driving to – as we see here – immense property destruction. Though small buildings compared to some others, gas stations need tons of safety equipment, piping, spill buckets, tanks, and much more.
Drivers might be able to go a few blocks down the road and gas up, but the people owning the station are out of luck big time unless their insurance comes through for them. Will they rebuild in the same place, or will they prove the name is right and make a move?
CHOO CHOO
It's likely you've seen this one before; it's pretty famous. You're seeing pictures of a United Kingdom train accident that happened in 1900, when a train ran into the barrier at Harcourt Street station, Dublin (now in Ireland), and ran through the end wall of the station.
The locomotive “Wicklow” swung over Hatch street after the collision. They didn't have the cranes and big machines used to move heavy items as we do. Today, this would have been a delay for a few weeks, but hundred years ago this was likely something that they had to deal with for months.
Probably Happened During Rush Hour, Too
A retaining wall is something used in cities homes, and highways to maintain the integrity of the ground. You probably see them all over, unless you live way out in the country. This picture is one example of why they're so important – if it fails, a lot can go wrong.
And it did on a highway in Turkey in march of 2021. According to the media, the wall failed overnight and no one was hurt. Rebuilding the retaining wall and the highway is sure to be a substantial task, but at this time the total cost is unknown.
Naughty, Naughty Building
We've seen a couple of broken-up buildings on this list in one way or another, but this is a strange example. Best we can gather, this is a building in Al Madinah Al Monwarah Park in Saudi Arabia, and we see a building that was peeled off its outer layer like it's doing a striptease.
Due to the language barrier, it's tough finding out how the outer layer is so damaged but the inner layer isn't. Unfortunately, repairing something to an earlier state often takes more time and money than just rebuilding from scratch, so the inner wall might have come down afterward. Use more than just super glue next time, guys.
Get the Broom
No, this isn't going to be anywhere near the most expensive thing on this list, but anyone who has dropped a plate and had shards of ceramic glass shoot all over the floor is groaning right now.
That is something like six hundred plates covering the floor of that kitchen. It could have been a few people responsible, but odds are one poor sod has to do all the cleaning himself. Even worse, the professional kitchen is pretty much unusable in this state. If the restaurant or eatery was running, people are going to start to go hungry. It's just bad news all around.
How's the Picture Now?
Las Vegas knows how to put on a show, no matter if it's good or bad. In this case, it's bad. Anywhere from three hundred thousand dollars to seven hundred thousand dollars bad. This is a picture of a video wall collapsing to the floor of the Mandalay Bay Event Center.
Seeing all those small parts broken and spread all over the floor makes any electronics worker wince, but those are expensive, complicated LED screens. Not to mention repairs to the floor, and time they can't use the event center to hold events. The likely culprit is a critical failure of both the supports and the cables.
Somebody Call an Expert
This picture has been spread around the internet a pretty good bit, and everyone who comments on it says pretty much the same thing: how on Earth did this happen? There are multiple white vans stuck under the awning of a gas station.
With one of the vans wedged at a hilarious angle, everybody's first thought when seeing this is the same. There's some physics joke hiding in here, but we don't know enough to point it out. As far as the cost goes, we have damage to the vans, the truck carrying them, the awning for the station, and all the other little bits. That's a good chunk of change.
Sometimes You're Just Having a Bad Day
It isn't a capsized boat, or a dozen smashed cars, or a house that's been split in half, but still. A little bit of forklift foolishness has given this hardware store a fresh coat, whether it needed one or not.
The total cost of this mistake is probably a few hundred at most. That's just the dollar amount, however. The cost of having all your co-workers call you names like “Butterfingers,” or something like that will be much higher.
They'll Never See It Coming
Apparently, we have here a few Turkish tanks that have really had a bad day. We aren't tank experts but we know the treads are supposed to stay down. Not only does this picture feature a tank that has had its turret smashed in, but the carrier that was hauling them doesn't look like it's in very good shape either.
Though that might be just what they want their enemies to think. We aren't sure what model that tank is, but there's a pretty good chance it costs a few million dollars to produce. Fun fact, the most expensive tank is worth more than twenty-seven million.
That's Only One Boat
While that may look like three different boats all tipped over right next to each other, it is, in fact, a single yacht. The waters of Greece are chock-a-block with fancy boats, so we're sure this happens occasionally. This time, however, the yacht is worth seventy million dollars.
We mean, look at the thing – it has three levels and we aren't even seeing the whole thing. This is called a superyacht. It happened when the yacht was being lifted out of the water for anti-fouling works. It's seventy meters long and weighs 1,531 gross tons!
We're Getting Thirsty Just Looking at It
Fires are always tragedies, and warehouse fires have the potential to do an immense amount of damage depending on what is contained inside. Take a look at that sign and see if you can figure out what this warehouse once held. It's a Jim Beam warehouse that contained something like forty-five thousand barrels of whiskey.
Having the building and barrels destroyed is one thing, but emergency personnel had to let this fire burn unhindered in order to burn through all the whiskey. This was in order to avoid runoff into nearby water sources. As nice as it is to drink, that much alcohol in water sources is bad.
Where Did I Leave My Teddy Bear?
There are a couple of examples on this list that aren't really anyone's fault. Heavy snow, a fire, a fallen building. This one, however, is absolutely someone's fault. You're seeing the remains of a simple old rag that has been left inside the engine of a vehicle (make and model unknown).
It's been torn up so bad it looks like shredded beef. Apparently, this was all to replace some intake gaskets, but the person responsible had to replace the entire engine. Hopefully, it was a learning moment.
Tornado Damage
Here are the 122 tornado-damaged C8's parked in a lot behind the assembly plant in Bowling Green. This is exactly why you can't leave cars outside, especially in areas where Tornadoes occur.
This is so painful to see. It offsets all the loaded trucks delivered to dealerships. All those wasted Corvettes that were scrapped before ever even being titled.
Shipping Containers
Back in 2011, this massive ship hauling containers ran aground off the coast of Tauranga, New Zealand. Despite the obvious tipping over, we've got to give props to the person who designed whatever holds the stacked containers together.
We never gave stacking containers a second thought before, but apparently, shipping containers have a locking mechanism in place, we just assumed their sheer weight kept them stacked on ships.
JumboTron
Even JumboTrons aren't immune to accidents. In 1996, the Buffalo Sabres JumboTron fell onto the ice only minutes after the players left the rink after practice. We're really curious if they had a new one installed by the time the next game was played. Those things aren't exactly sitting around at Walmart...
This took a few weeks to get fixed. They took the 2 working screens and set them up at either end of the 100 section in the back few rows of seats.
Wrecked House
This house was ruined even before it was finished thanks to the strong winds up in Colorado. The finishing touches are an important part of structural integrity.
Which means it provides rigidity to the frame and helps to prevent twisting. If the building wasn't completely finished it would easily fall apart, like this.
Mercedes on the Train Tracks
Turns out it's not only Americans who make these kinds of mistakes, a 68-year-old German man decided to drive on the train tracks for some reason and after several hundred meters, he got stuck and his Mercedes was wrecked.
While we can't say why he chose to do this, we can say for sure that you shouldn't try this. It will wreck your car and the schedule of everyone in your vicinity.
Boat on Fire
We never thought we'd stumble upon this, but here's a boat that caught fire. According to the news story, the fire started after a crew was repairing one of the 100-foot boats when it caught fire and released a plume of smoke that could be seen for miles.
Boats are a multi-million dollar loss, so moral of the story — don't get a boat.
Parking Problems
"Is this not a reasonable place to park?" Turns out parking isn't as simple for some drivers. While it may look like the van was at fault here, it's actually the Lotus sports car that revved its way under the van.
How that happened exactly is beyond our understanding, but from what we can surmise, it seems that the Lotus lost control and drove into the van and somehow ended up under it.
Molasses Spill
In January of 1919, a truck spilled 5000 gallons of molasses. The wave of molasses bent the elevated railroad tracks out of shape, crushed buildings, and inundated the surrounding neighborhoods. Structural defects in the tank combined with unseasonably warm temperatures contributed to the disaster.
The accident has since become a staple of local culture, not only for the damage the flood brought but also for the sweet smell that filled the North End for decades after the disaster.
Prestige Oil Spill
In early November 2002, the Western Europe coastline experienced a disastrous accident that could have been avoided. The overall cost of the accident was estimated at $12 billion, but its effect on the coastline and the wildlife there is immeasurable.
The accident happened due to a storm in the Atlantic Ocean, around 120 miles off the coast of Spain, which caused the Prestige, a single-hulled oil tanker, to encounter trouble and start to leak oil into the ocean.
The San Francisco Earthquake
Like many earthquakes, the earthquake that shook San Francisco on April 18, 1906, lasted a short time – only 45 seconds. Although it was less than a minute of heart-racing panic, what followed would be much worse. For three full days, fires ravaged the city and around 3,000 lost their lives.
An additional 200,000 people lost their homes. Damages cost the city about $235 million at the time, and it that sounds like a lot, wait till you hear this: That sum of the money was equivalent to $6.3 billion in 2018.
Chernobyl
When we think of large-scale, man-made accidents, Chernobyl is the one we immediately think of. This is the single most expensive disaster on record and that value is still rising, although the current figure is around $200 billion so far.
Not many people were killed at the initial explosion but over time, radiation has caused many deaths and damages.
500 Gallons of Chicken Fat
This slippery substance of chicken fat escaped a tanker truck and several vehicles lost control as a result of the spill. After police responded to the scene, dirt and sand were poured over the fat to make it less slippery.
Lime was also added to help with the resulting stench and, eventually, a cleanup crew came out to wash it all away.
Titanic
The Titanic is probably one of the most famous on the list thanks to Hollywood. The ship alone cost $7 million to build. That is $150 million in today’s dollars.
But what's worse is the lives of over 1,500 passengers that were lost, which are all beyond monetary value.
Tanker Truck Explodes
On August 26, 2004, on the Wiehltal Bridge in Germany, a car crashed into a tanker truck that carried 32,000 liters of fuel. The explosion was enormous and ensued in a great wreck which destroyed the huge bridge.
It cost around 358 million dollars to repair and rebuild it.
Chatsworth Train Collision
This is one of the worst, and the costliest, train collisions to have ever happened. The accident happened because the Metrolink train ignored a red signal while the train conductor was busy receiving messages.
This fateful mistake cost Metrolink $500 million in losses.
Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion
Just a couple of seconds after takeoff, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded with all the seven highly trained members inside. All damages totaled around 5.5 billion in today’s dollars. The disaster was caused by the failure of the two redundant O-ring seals in a joint in the Space Shuttle's right solid rocket booster.
The record-low temperatures of the launch reduced the elasticity of the rubber O-rings, reducing their ability to seal the joints.
Space Shuttle Columbia Explosion
This is easily the costliest and one of the most devastating aircraft accidents in history and it happened on live television, in front of millions of viewers.
The Space Shuttle Columbia exploded during re-entry over Texas on February 1, 2003. According to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the total cost of the accident was $13 billion.
Macaroni Spill
This tractor-trailer carrying 43,000 pounds of mac & cheese boxes just overturned on the highway, spilling the precious cargo in the process and causing a big mess.
The accident, which took place near the intersection of junctions 24 and 40 in Nashville, happened around 7:30 am on May 20, 2020. Fortunately, there were no injuries on site, other than the hearts weeping over the loss of cheesy potential, that is.
Exxon Valdez Spill
On March 24, 1989, a tanker crashed into a reef because the ship’s master left the control. 10.8 million gallons of oil were spilled into the ocean. The cleanup cost Exxon $2.5 billion.
The Exxon Valdez spill is the second-largest in U.S. waters, after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in terms of volume of oil released.
Piper Alpha Oil Rig
This is the world’s most expensive off-shore oil disaster ever recorded. The cause was a human error when one of the technicians forgot to replace one of the safety valves.
The result was catastrophic. It cost employees' lives and $3.4 billion in damages. The accident is the worst offshore oil disaster in terms of lives lost and industry impact.
Seveso Disaster
A cloud containing a kilogram of a carcinogenic byproduct used to produce hand soaps, leaked from a chemical plant in Meda, Italy, in 1976, settling over the towns of Meda and Seveso.
Over 700 people were evacuated and drastic measures had to be used as a precaution to prevent chemicals from poisoning the food chain.
Asbestos Leak
Since 1919, 400 people have died and almost 3,000 became ill because of toxic asbestos dust from vermiculite mining in Libby, Montana. The mining company was shut down in 1990.
Ever since 2008, the EPA declared a public health emergency and set out to clean up the tainted vermiculite required deconstructing homes, businesses, and other buildings. The city has since opened this clinic for Asbestos-related diseases.
Jilin Plant Explosion
Tens of thousands had to be evacuated when explosions at a petrochemical plant rocked through Jilin, China. And that is not the worst thing caused by this disaster. Not by a longshot.
Chemicals seeped into China's Songhua River, then into the Amur River at the China-Russia border, where benzene levels were measured at 108 times as high as standard safety levels, and eventually into the Pacific Ocean. A blockage in one of the plant's nitration towers caused the explosions, according to World Atlas.
Toxic Waste Disposal in New York
From 1942 to 1953, the Hooker Chemical Co. used a canal in Love Canal, New York, to dispose of 21,000 tons of toxic chemical waste. In 1978, The New York Times reported that chemicals from the canal had leaked into people's homes, yards, and school playgrounds after years of heavy rainy seasons created toxic puddles.
President Jimmy Carter declared a state of emergency that same year, relocated 239 families, and declared a second state of emergency in 1981 to evacuate the rest of Love Canal's residents.
The Tennesse Coal Ash Spill
The Kingston Fossil Fuel Power Plant, like any other of its kind, produced fly coal ash as a by-product of the coal combustion. Due to poor management, the mixture was stored in dangerously high amounts on the slope of a hill. After a powerful rainstorm, in 2008, the slurry gave weight and stormed down the hill in a massive landslide of mud and ash.
Three hundred acres of land were buried under the filth and a lot of properties in Kingston were destroyed. An estimate of 675 million dollars of damage was caused to the residents and national land with another 975 million needed to clean up the slurry. It took six months t remove only three percent.
The North Pacific Garbage Patch
In 1988, scientists predicted the garbage thrown off in the ocean will ultimately converge in one of the ocean's currents and create a huge patch of waste floating in circles forever. Well, it happened.
Estimates vary between 700 thousand and 15 million square kilometers of garbage. Roughly 0.4 to 8.1 percent of the entire surface of the Pacific Ocean is covered in a mixture of toxic sludge, plastic, petrol, and other thrown-away waste.
Solar Panels Took a Hit
Nobody could have predicted that hailstones get so big! Unfortunately, they hit these solar panels, which rendered them useless and the damage was irreparable.
Just look at the size of those icy hailstones! We hope they have insurance because that must be crazy expensive to replace!
The Luxury Car Pile-Up
If you've ever been to Monaco, you'll know about the generous caliber of vehicles they have on the road. In July 2011, five luxury cars piled up in what was ranked as one of the most expensive car accidents in history.
The collision involved a Bentley Azure, a Mercedes S Class (retails at $120,000), an Aston Martin Rapide, a Ferrari F430, and a Porsche 911. All five collided in front of the legendary Place du Casino in Monaco.
The 7 Billion Euro Accident
In 2019, one of Paris' most beautiful landmarks burned down. The Notre-Dame cathedral was first built in the 12th century. With some renovations from time to time, it managed to stay up and be visited by many tourists from all over the world, up until the 21st century.
The accidental fire smashed hearts around the globe, and over 400 firefighters were called to the scene to try and save the cathedral. It is estimated that it will take over 7 Billion euros and many years to get this holy place back to its initial condition before the fire.
Chris Cox and his Ferrari 250 GTO
1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, the “Picasso” of the auto world. Ferrari only made around thirty of these. Chris Cox, the owner of the car, got into a wreck, making this possibly one of the most expensive car crashes in history. The financial damage is immense given that the car was woth $30 million!
At the other end of the story is the insurance company - and we’re sure that the insurance lizard (yes, Geico) on the other side probably had a heart attack at having to insure this crash.
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
With an estimated damages bill that rangesd between 60 and 100 billion dollars, an oil spill is never something that is easy to total the costs for. While we can see the surface of such an incident, it’s what happens below to our aquatic life that's more devastating. The BP oil spill was a massive scale industrial disaster in the Gulf of Mexico on the Macondo prospect. The rig exploded and sank and caused a financial and ecological loss of colossal proportions.
Along with the 11 human lives lost, an estimated 25 000 marine animals, 82 000 birds, and a countless number of fish were killed as well. This one definitely cost more than 100 billion dollars.
Poor Zonda F
Many of you car-heads will know what a Pagani Zonda F Clubsport Roadster is - for those who don’t know, it’s a supercar, reserved for F1 drivers and/or the extremely wealthy. Owner, Steffen Korbach, was unfortunately involved in a wreck on the way to a Pagani event in Milan.
Luckily, Korbach wasn’t injured, but boy his ego and his prized possession sure were. This particular car was one of 25 in the world, and the crash of the rare Italian car was worth a reported $2.2 million. Yikes!
Beirut Explosion
Don't underestimate storage safety! The explosion in Beirut caused the loss of hundreds of lives, thousands of injuries, and $15 billion in damages. The disaster was brought about by the unsafe and unchecked storage of confiscated explosives and chemicals in a warehouse located at the Beirut Port.
Let's just hope that the lesson to always take the necessary precautions when handling dangerous materials was heard the world over.
Another Car Which Broke the Bank
If you look at the accidents throughout history, you’ll have oil spills, nuclear reactor accidents, and then there are cars. Some of the most expensive personal accidents have involved wealthy people and their supercars. Next up is Stefan Eriksson.
He crashed his Ferrari Enzo while speeding in Malibu. Despite crashing at 162mph, Eriksson amazingly survived! The crash though was reported to have been worth almost $2 million.
Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami
After the devastation caused at Chernobyl, the next most costly disaster was in Japan, estimated to have cost the nation a whopping $360 billion. The Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami saw people experience a 9.0-9.1 Magnitude undersea megathrust earthquake.
It remains to be the most powerful earthquake recorded in Japan, devastating many prefectures, including Miyagi, Fukushima, Ibaraki, and Tochigi. It was so powerful it even shifted portions of north-eastern Japan by as much as a few meters. Terrifying!
It’s a Bad Day to Be a Veyron
These poor Bugatti Veyrons, we almost feel sorry for these supercars. The owner's brother, Ajay Soni, crashed the car. Talk about sibling rivalry.
Ajay was fined and penalized driving points and he also was down $1.6 million, which he owed to his understandably infuriated brother. The worst part about this story is that when Ajay crashed the exotic car, he was only driving at 65mph.
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina, which, when it was the first broadcast, seemed like more of a film than a real event, was one of the largest natural disasters ever. It reportedly amassed damages of over $125 billion and devastated millions of people.
For years, Louisiana spent time rebuilding homes, businesses, and livelihoods in general. The support flooded in, but the communities suffered for longer than necessary due to delays in securing the promised dollars.
Rowan Atkinson’s Crash
You may remember that Mr. Bean (portrayed by Rowan Atkinson) was in the news, not for crashing his little green mini car, but for crashing his McLaren F1, not once but twice!
The actor and comedian managed to recoup his insurance money, which at the time, was the largest single car insurance claim recorded in the United Kingdom. Better still, the actor sold his car a few years later for a whopping 8 million pounds. Wow!
Suez Canal Disaster
The "MV Ever Given" will forever be known as the container ship that blocked up the entire world. The 200 000 tonne ship was traveling through the relatively narrow Suez Canal (a crucial transport waterway) when it ran aground, effectively blocking the canal.
It took a week to un-wedge the ship and free up the waterway, which ultimately caused a global price tag of $1 Billion. Now that's got us sweating!
California Wildfires
While Californians are no strangers to an annual wildfire season, the wildfires in 2021 caused record-breaking devastation and destruction in the State. A combination of low rain levels and a lengthy drought (brought on by climate change) exacerbated the severity of the wildfires.
The total cost? Experts estimate anywhere between $70 million and $90 million! Yikes!
Totaling a Toyota No way!
A Toyota accident being worth $1.2 million?! Seems crazy but in Japan, there are a few super-Toyotas being driven around. This wasn’t just any run-of-the-mill Toyota of course - it was a Toyota 2000GT, and was one of just 337 in the world.
The car was minding its own business, driving past right at the moment a tree fell onto the car! Luckily the drivers only had minor injuries, but the car was destroyed by the 100ft tree!
Australian Bushfires
It was all over the news at the time when hot summers and the failure of months of back burning led to a natural disaster in the southern hemisphere. The fatal bushfires, which went on for months, not only destroyed homes and livelihoods - but also decimated almost 1 billion of Australia’s native wildlife.
Yes, 1 billion. Sit there for a minute and soak in that number. Koalas, kangaroos, emus are just a few of our favorite Aussie animals that perished in the fires. A truly devastating disaster, which reportedly cost $70 billion.
Great Hanshin Earthquake
Estimated to have set back governments and banks about $197 billion, it was one of the most extreme events to have occurred in Japan ever. For context, many of the earthquakes which have devastated Japan are caused by the subduction of the Pacific Plate. The northeastern part of Japan is particularly affected by this movement, however, in this case, Hanshin occurred due to an active fault line.
This earthquake was labeled an “inland shallow earthquake” - and it occurred in a populated area. The worst part about Hanshin was that it occurred a mere 20km below the surface, wreaking havoc on the Kobe area.