Double Trailers; Heavier Trailer before Lighter Trailer 23 CFR

Yes, the main issue was not the way it was loaded. It was the way it was loaded, combined with the road conditions. It was raining, and I didn't want that load pushing me all over the place under those conditions. As the above-poster's own mother has stated in their conversation he ha included , the inertia of the loaded trailer now becomes the dominant force. The tractor isn't so much pulling the trailer at those speeds; rather, the trailer is pushing the power unit forward, and wants to continue on in that manner indefinitely until the laws of physics--like friction--slow it down.

As far as the vapor in the compartments, I wasn't concerned about it under normal circumstances. Due to the rain, I did not want the load pushing me all over the place. This would have required a substantial reduction in speed , and therefore an increase of a rear-ending accident was present. If someone rear-ended my trailer and drove into my empty compartments, we now have both air, and heat, present in the equation.

 

In theory we could have, but not at the customer's location. There was no suitable location to pump either. On that note, I don't even believe this truck had a PTO pump.

 

Also, keep in mind that I did not have the benefit of analyzing the situation in great detail at the time. The situation was a spontaneous reaction to conditions, the current state of things, and my own common sense. A reflexive action, if you will--and consistent with all of my original training from a legitimate, respected fuel-hauling company in California. It's even written in the DMV handbook that the rear trailer is not to be heavier than the power unit.

On that note, it is legally protected regardless of, upon further analysis, discovering that perhaps I did not have to reject that load after all. It doesn't necessarily matter. We step on the side of caution as a means to prevent catastrophes. It doesn't mean that every time we do this, we absolutely avoided a catastrophe. Rather, the preventative steps we take for those 1000 times it was not actually necessary, saves us from the unthinkable horrific incident, during that one time we should be overly-cautious. Let me go further and say, so many horrible incidents have happened and after interviewing the survivor, they said something to the effect of, "My gut told me to speak up about this but I didn't want to make waves, I didn't want to seem inexperienced, I didn't want to make my supervisor mad, I didn't want to put us behind schedule..." Dude is burned on 90 percent of his body and won't have a functioning member for the duration of his life that moment forward. Has to spend 2 years in a burn hospital. Killed a coworker or an innocent motorist out on the road. It wasn't gonna be me, regardless of how much "experience" or "training" I have. I was the driver, it was my call.