In case you did not already know, rolling coal is stupid, dangerous, and illegal. If you’re of a certain age, then you’ve probably heard the saying that “driving is a privilege, not a right.” Chances were when you heard that phrase for the first time, you were likely pretty young and rolled your eyes before the person saying it to you finished speaking. We’re guilty of it too.

The truth is that saying is 100% right and is an important tenant of car safety. The adults told us this while we were young because they were trying to get us to respect the genuine danger that immature drivers can be behind the wheel of a car or truck. Apparently, a 16-year-old teenager in Texas either didn’t get that talk from their guardians, or they straight up ignored it.

Teenage driver strikes several cyclists while rolling coal in lifted diesel truck

According to a report from KRPC news, police in Waller County are investigating a horrific accident on the morning of September 25th, 2021, on Business. 290 road. A 16-year-old driver behind the wheel of a lifted Ford Super Duty diesel truck crashed into a group of bikers, hitting six of them in total.

Another cyclist named Chase Ferrell was traveling behind the group of cyclists that were struck and witnessed the entire ordeal. “When I pulled up on the scene, I thought I was going to be pulling up to people that were dead,” Ferrell said.

Ferrell said that the teenager was “rolling coal” on the group of cyclists who were training for an Ironman triathlon. Ferrell said that the teenager rolled coal on the group several times.

“It made me mad, so I accelerated to try to catch up to him, so I could take a picture of his truck, take a picture of him or his license plate or something,” said Ferrell. Just as he caught up to the truck, he witnessed it strike the group of cyclists.

The people that were hit suffered neck, shoulder, and back injuries from the rolling coal accident. None of the injuries were life-threatening, but several of the injured cyclists were transported to the hospital after the accident. Some of the victims are waiting to undergo surgery.

Ferrell said that the teenage driver stopped after the accident and talked to the police, but according to Ferrell, the teen was not arrested. “I don’t understand if it was me who had struck someone else, I would be in jail. I don’t understand how it’s come to this point where there are no consequences this far,” said Ferrell.

What is rolling coal?

“Rolling coal” started as a result of truck owners modifying diesel engines for maximum power. Truck owners would remove emissions control components and re-tune their truck’s ECU software to get as much torque as possible. Generally, these modifications were done for competitive events like truck pulls.

A side-effect of making these modifications is that large thick clouds of black soot would erupt from the truck’s exhaust pipes, thus the nickname “rolling coal.” At some point, diesel truck owners started to purposely roll coal at other cars such as Teslas and people such as cyclists on the roads.

This practice is very dangerous as obviously breathing in that smoke is very toxic, and the thick clouds can block the vision of other drivers on the road, which can lead to accidents. The harassment technique is illegal in some states, but it continues to happen.

Needless to say, if you are a diesel truck owner, you should never purposely participate in rolling coal at people.