What do you think happened?

He won't get fired, that's a Teamsters company.

 

Looks like your phone was upside down when you took the pic.

 

Problem is that nobody seems to do that anymore. Do a tug test and visually check to make sure the fifth wheel latched when you go to raise the landing gear.

I was a trainer at my last company and I had to give twice a year evaluations of drivers. Almost 100% of the time I would have to mark off drivers for not doing this, and this is when they knew they were being watched and evaluated. Makes me wonder what else they were lazy about when nobody was watching. Hard to believe that we don't see more trailers dropped.

 

He probably was dropping the trailer and pulled the pin but thought it was stuck so he backed up on it... But that is definitely a big mistake that could have been avoided.

 

To keep the kinks out of everyone's necks.......

As for this driver, as a couple of others have said, looks like he jumped the 5th wheel. And with the cab damage and the trailer shifted off to the right as far as it was, he was most likely using a little more speed than he should have. Might have been swapping a load out with another driver.

 

Driver was a lucky one to have a empty or a light one or it would be on its side?

 

Well that happens when you drive upside down, was this in Australia ?
(sorry lol)

 

If you high hook and do a tug test it may feel like its ok, but when you make your first turn you'll find if it's not hooked properly. When I was starting out it happened to me. The last company I was leased on to was very strict about any incidents, so I got into the habit of looking under the trailer and eyeballin the 5th wheel. Takes a few minutes longer but you gotta CYA!

 

wow sherlock you know there was no defect?? hell he made it from the terminal to the rest area with out a problem. we had a trailer with a cracked fifth wheel plate no telling how old or new it was, you could not see it if hooked to the trailer, it was about a foot long they had to junk the trailer it was that bad.

it would be very odd to see local companys swaping in a rest area to much wasted time waiting for some one, you do the meet at a custermer or fueling stop, but never say never.