Truck Driver Killed by his load 4-22-16

Where's the link?

 

http://wane.com/2016/04/22/fatal-crash-closes-lanes-of-us-20-in-angola/

 

That's 2 in a row on that area

 

I made my living on that road running flat bed. Im sorry he was killed.

With that said and viewing the link, I come to two thoughts. If you are able to stop fast enough to where a suicide loaded freight is going to roll or punch through your cab there is nothing that will save you. Headache racks are bolted with U bolts to the frame, I think mine had 4 of them to hold it's aluminum to the rails of the Volvo I had then. Lots of chains, binders etc were on that rack. It would be easy for those beams to snap the rack, punch the cab sleeper and take me out.

All the restraint in the world would not stop a load from shifting forward. There were older Fruehauf Flatbeds out of Frederick Maryland where you loaded shingles against the forward bulkhead, 6 pallets to the front and maybe 4 more or 6 more over the tandems in the back, I forget exactly how many now. Those bulkheads took on the inertia a time or two when I made the rare emergency stop.

With the covered wagon Ravens 48 footer, there is nothing except a little bit of foam squares with aluminum posts every few feet to hold everything in place under a canvas tarp. You made sure to chain those coils, either eye to sky, suicide (Eyes to side rolling forward or aft) or widow makers those that had the eye longitudinal and able to roll off either side of the trailer and mash a family next to you)

I had a lead driver by the name of Daffy Duck, There must be 10,000 of them running around the USA with flatbeds one day on US 20 just east of Stoneyridge. He told me on the radio to quickly get out of my hammer lane (Left lane westbound just past the junction about 2 miles south of the TA, 70's etc at the toll roads) to the right.

I did and and watched my trailer swing clear of a Buick LeSabre yellow with 8 teenagers aboard laughing and partying after almost having a headon collision with me. I was loaded with three coils eye to sky that day, each one with 3 straps 4 inch on and some chain as well. None of the straps and chain would have done any good if that 3 ton Buick slammed into me front and I had cars all around me in both directions as well. The coils would have gone on where they go mashing people all over that junction.

July 4th week 1994-1995. There was a policeman doing speed trap about half a mile to the north of the junction. I don't think he was aware of the trouble that day.

That lead driver gave me timely warning to work the problem of a oncoming death in the few seconds that was left prior to my seeing the oncoming vehicle and get out of it's way. He saved my life, the lives of the 8 and god knows how many around us with children that afternoon with that radio call ahead of me when the buick passed him. Not to mention freedom. I would be rotting in prison with charges of manslaugher, civil suits and so on to this day.

Flatbedding is a joy. But also a deadly serious adventure. Ive loved every bit of it and will continue to do it again and again. It's something you do when I discover that for me it's a perfect life on earth under Heaven and above Hell.

I think of the first responders who had to see the gore and remains possibly with some suffering. I hope that God grants them a peace knowing they have done what they can do and rest easy knowing that there are times People are killed in gruesome ways that I would not wish on anyone. Ive seen people cut in half or mashed in my time. The worst are the falls when people fail to hook on to safety harness atop the trailer while rolling canvas tarp in the loading bay 14 feet above the hard concrete.

You drivers know better than anyone what it takes to get control of your loaded or empty rigs. For those who never did flatbedding, I offer this idea. Take a coffee cup, a medium cup, put it on your dashboard top without a lid almost full. Or you can stick it on the cab floor just in front of your gear shift if you prefer, but it has to be a medium or large coffee cup with fluid almost to the top.

Then drive gently with that flatbed until your coffee does not spill or slosh too much. That was how I learned to drive mine. That and chains jingling. If they were making music I was not doing well at all and the load was loose and a threat.

I promise you, you will have no problems getting the iron you need in your body nurishment daily what with the dozen steel coil cuts you will have while loading or unloading.

 

Actually, I think it's the same one.

 

Totally preventable.
1) No headache rack. Don't understand how you can haul metal without one. At least give yourself a remote possibility of surviving.
2) Not enough securement.
3) Straps on metal. Never liked that
4) No edge protectors for the straps.

RIP.

 

As has been stated, a headache rack wouldn't have made an ounce of difference. Those beams punched through with enough force to clear the hood by quite a bit...you REALLY think a tiny little aluminum panel is going to change the outcome? It won't.

The biggest thing I noticed is that the beams were secured with straps. As soon as the load began to shift, the straps were cut and the load was unrestrained. Had he used chains instead, the situation could have been avoided. Even if the load DOES shift with chains, the chains can still work to slow/stop the movement of the load because they aren't going to get cut when they slip a little. Ideally, the load WON'T shift, but if the SHTF and you've got to stop quick, you'd better have good securement.

 

My thoughts and prayers are for this driver and his family. We have always been taught, steel on steel. This situation would be the reason. That load was not going to be stopped by anything else, to come that far out the front, there was a lot of momentum. In any securement class you've ever attended, all the war stories start off with a line about how the 4 wheeler made him slam on his brakes or something similar. Hopefully others can learn from this situation and recognize the inherent dangers of open deck work. If you spend an extra 5 or 10 minutes, throwing another chain or two, what's the big deal. There are so many things that are beyond our control, and things really are life and death.

 

Look at the steel. It isn't steel in its raw form and there is a pallet at the front of the trailer. This looks like a building frame or something. The shipper probably didn't let him put chains on for fear it would wear the paint or finish off.