We Lost Another One-R.I.P. Driver

This happened in my area, and it happened before a few years back but the driver got away with just serious injuries.

This is the reason I have trailers with bulkheads that are steel and the trucks have headache racks for the driver's protection. Many of these drivers I see running on M50, 23 and M14 don't secure their loads for forward movements and a number of them had their loads go through the sleeper.

By the way, someone said this is a Michigan train, it isn't. A Michigan train is a multi-axled two trailer dump setup that can be up to 164k gross.

 

I hauled very little flatbed and even less steel, but the ones I came in contact with, usually had a couple chains in front in case of a slide. I don't see any here, could that have prevented this?

 

Almost guaranteed. It's much easier to keep something from moving than to stop it once it's started.

 

Plate steel is easy to x-chain the front. This looks like maybe 6x6 square steel and a x-chain is not very effective without a wood bulkhead setup in place, then it becomes very effective.

 

If the post I was commenting on was referring to a false bulkhead, then you're right.... that wasn't how I took his comment. He said "bulkhead/headache rack".... a bulkhead is the wall on the front of a flatbed..... that's what I took him to mean and that would have slowed it, but not stopped it..... hence me stating once it breaks loose. You're right, a false bulkhead would likely have prevented it f5om breaking loose to begin with..... which goes to proper load securement.

Next time try just adding to a post rather than attempting to correct someone that isnt wrong.

 

Thanks for the good pic... This is what I was referring to. I have always called the bulkhead built as park of the trailer a headache rack, I also call the rack on truck behind sleeper a headache rack.

So I learned something new today, Bulkhead vs. False bulkhead.

I've not had very much open deck experience... Mostly my open deck hauls have been hay and/or straw bales.

 

That driver was lazy and it costed him his life. I count 7 pieces of securement. I don’t know what he weighed but that’s an 8 axle trailer, 11 axles with the truck. He can haul some serious weight. 7 pieces of securement is not nearly enough. No wood bulkhead either.

 

A lot of guys put a wood bulkhead at the front of the trailer [and then forget about it] then load steel 8 feet behind it, and think they’re protected. They’re not.

The key to a wood bulkhead is placing it immediately in front of the load to prevent forward movement inertia from ever developing in a typical hard brake stop or forward impact with a lighter vehicle.

 

Over the years, I've seen a lot of lazy driver stuff. It just caught up to this driver.