This is what happens when you don't pretrip the truck!

Whoa there!! Never had that happen, but I'll bet it tightened up your shorts a bit. That's one of my worst fears. I usually drop my trailer when I get back to the yard, and just back under the trailer the day shift guy likes, to keep someone else from grabbing it. I DO NOT back under all the way, and DO NOT hook up the air or pigtail. I leave it to where it's obvious it isn't hooked.
He does the same for me if I'm not there. But I made it clear, please don't hook it, I'll do it myself. That way I won't assume everything is fine, and just do a quick PTI like you did. No, I'm not trying to add insult to injury, you're VERY lucky, and I just know you won't do that again!!

 

I'm sure with all of the instant adrenaline you got when it disconnected and fell into the street you had NO problem dollyin that baby up.

 

I have had similar experience, twice, but for a slightly different reason. Both times I did a tug with the trailer brakes set and it seemed secure, and looked that way from the side and the handle was in the latched position. But what I had latched to was just the bottom plate of the king pin, and at the 1st bump, or twisting turn they seperated, fortunately for me at low speed in the yard where I hooked up. So I learned to be sure the trailer was all the way down before making the latch, and to crawl under and look to see the jars really are latched around the entire pin.

 

Always and with a flashlight.

 

i never have to worry about someone else hooking my truck to a trailer, im the only one with a key, i dont and wont ever drive as a team, or slip seat trucking company

 

I had a similar situation a few years ago. One of the linehaul drivers dropped the trailer in the yard instead of at the airport like it was supposed to be. I got a call at 430am saying that they had a crew of guys waiting to unload. So up I get, head on over to the yard, start the tractor and wait a bit for it to warm up. I think it was -30C or thereabouts. I hook up to the trailer, did the tug test but failed to get under the trailer and ensure the jaws were completely closed.

As I pulled out of the yard and made a left onto the road I heard something not right and immediately stopped, looked behind me and the trailer was half on and half off the tractor. I tried to crank it back up but couldn't. The entire road was blocked off and I had to wait for the company up the road to come over with a loader to lift the front end up enough to get under it.

I now always always always check and double check.

 

I lost the second pup off a gear one time. But at least it was in the yard, rather than on the road. Real PITA, and extremely embarrassing. Back then we, (city drivers) did the hook ups for the night line haul guys. We did a pretrip and could run them through the shop if there were problems, since there was no one in the shop overnight.