Could the driver have stopped his tractor?

Possibly , if he had a knife but it could also have caused loss of control when the brakes locked up . I don't know what brake line he'd have access to though unless he wanted to crawl across the fifth wheel and hang between the driveshaft and rear wheel .

 

If you look at about 27 seconds, he is right at the battery box. All he had to do was yank the little power wire off that goes to the ECM. It would of shut her down dead in her tracks.

It looks like he took the cover off, but didn't know what to do?

I'll move this to Trucker News. Better fit.

 

if he would have gotten a parking brake line. Would have popped the valve with loss of air pressure. Basically, it would set the parking brakes HARD.

 

Pretty stupid of him to jump on the tractor...I can see "maybe" if you're an OO but if it was a company tractor, heck no!...

 

This all happened in union city ga.
It could have been avoided if he would have just LOCKED his door when he ran in to the store. Lol.

 

Sure he COULD have cut a brake line, but he would have had to lean down next to the spinning tires.....and would most likely been thrown OFF the truck when the brakes locked up. For the battery box, he would have needed a wrench to loosen the nuts holding the wires on, they shouldnt be loose enough to pull of, i supose he could have tried anyway maybe he coulda wiggled a little one till it snaped or something.

But i have to agree with walstib, you wanna steal it, have a nice day, i'm not jumping on the back of someone else truck. And i also never walk away from my truck without locking it, even at terminals....



American Trucker

 

ECM power is a little 14-16 gauge wire with a small lug you mount under the clamp nut. One can easily yank it out under them conditions. We ain't talking about the big cables.

If your truck ever quits out right and it ain't fuel, it's that little wire. I found that out the hard way about 3am in the morning. I called my dispatcher and woke him up and told him what happened. He said check that wire, half asleep. Sure enough he knew what he was talking about.
Mine broke at the lug.

Remember that, it might save you one day.

 

Dang! Company truck = cya later and have a nice day while dialing 911. My truck = Is it worth your life?

 

O/O or not, it's not worth risking your life over something that you should have insurance to cover it. That guy is just plain lucky the thief didn't crash and roll the thing.

I was glad to see the cops at least had enough sense not to try a rolling road block. Several years ago, a Butler Co. Ks. deputy found out you do not get in front of a stolen tractor/trailer, that's been stolen. The driver pushed his car into the side of a building, which of course killed the deputy.