Can a load shift wreck you?

I've had 2 load shifts (flat bed)...one was caused by a car pulling out in front of me.

The first was a load of crated granite, it was nothing major...just slid out from under the straps and turned 1 crate over. Got a guy out there to move it around and straighten it up and went on my way.

The 2nd was a load of shiny bar (slick steel bars)...an RV stopped, right in the middle of the interstate, to let an oversize load pass him...I wasn't following him close, but I didn't quite expect him to stop like he did either. The only thing that saved ME in this incident was that I had it on a step deck trailer...had it been on a flat, it would have went through the truck, and me. When the load (44,000 lbs.) hit the step on the trailer it shoved the truck forward about 10 more feet...stopped about 6 inches from the RV. I am NOT easily rattled...but I had to pull over and settle myself after that one.

The shiny bar load was partially my fault though...I didn't know enough at the time to load it butted up against the step, or build a bulkhead. I had been driving a while, but had never hauled shiny bar.

I've never shifted a load sideways, but yes...it can and will turn the truck over.

A bit off topic I know...but may be educational to somebody.

 

I'm not a psychic or anything, but I'd say its a pretty good bet he drifted of the edge of the pavement due to a number of possibilities(dozed off maybe?) and just plain snatched it back too quick.

 

Intermodal 53 ft. box is the easiest to roll. There loaded to the ceiling, front to back, 4 pins hold the box on. If you where to take a ramp at the posted speed, the box will lift, because the hole the pins go in are much larger than the pin, and the box is higher than a dry van,plus the trucks are the lightest available so you can pull heavier loads, the trailer then is the boss, of the load. A dry van with 13 ft. tall paper rolls is also tippy, a tanker is easier if your controlling the surge. I had a dry van tip in front of me in Conn., slow motion .5 mph , he was turning the wrong way to the truck stop, alot of banking on the ramp, I told him on the cb, go left to the truck stop, he went right, then on his left side, he went over real slow, it was weird and stuff. He was not hurt.

 

There was a USXPRESS truck turned over coming off a redlight at the end of an off ramp. I 85 exit 63 Duncan SC going to the TA. He was hauling the big tall rolls of paper. When the light turned green, he went, turned the wheel right, paper shifted..and whola, mess that exit up. I have hauled those rolls of paper. There are usually 6 rolls of paper standing about 7 ft tall. weighing about 7200 lbs each.

 

A buddy of mine years ago picked up a load of plastic pellets that were in big boxes on pallets. One of the first boxes that was loaded leaked a row of plastic pellets down the center of the trailer. The rest of the load was loaded on top of these pellets. My friend took a gentle curve and felt the trailer move. The trailer nearly rolled. He broke the seal and looked inside and the whole load "skated" on top of the plastic pellets to one side of the trailer.

 

Proabably a over correction could cause this to driving at high speeds and all of a sudden jerking the wheel really hard to one way can probably tip a top haevy trailer, I was in Booneville,IN going to a TSC store and he made a turn and laid the ol' coal bucket right over.

 

Overturning a truck on a straight stretch of road could only be because of several reasons and none of them would be because of a load shifting on it's own.

Even south of the curves as you state. If something had shifted then the truck would have experienced problems then and not later.

He had to have
#1 Drifted of the edge of the road and over corrected and rolled the truck over.
#2 Been following to closely and had someone in front of him do something causing a hard ovecorrection causing the rollover.

But I see any of those as driver inattention and a preventable accident!

I've seen EMPTY or lightly loaded trucks blown over in high winds but not a heavily loaded one unless it was a tornado!

Loads shift with hard movement of the truck in curves and turns. Unless some freight loaded on the bottom collapsed from heavier freight on top it will be very few and far between that a load will "shift" on straight roads unless it's so pot holed and the driver didn't try to miss those pot holes bottom freight will collapse. That "might" cause freight to shift and fall but only that section or pallet.

Most of the time you see a truck on it's side is from drivers over correction, ice,snow,rain which is STILL a driver preventable as it's the drivers decision to drive in a hazardous situation. Screw that dispatcher as he's not in the seat and if you screw the pooch he's not the one in trouble! As I've said for many years that load will get there right behind me and there is NO freight worth dying for or killing someone else for!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fILg6FGp0qw&feature=related

 

Semi trucks have a higher center of gravity, just like SUVs, but much higher. If you peruse all the past news reports of SUVs flipping over on its side, the concept is identical to semi trucks. In contrast, if you look at professional race cars, observe that they're only 2 or 3 inches of clearance from the ground. This lowers their center gravity, allowing them to take tight turns and curves without the vehicle turning on its side. Its all a law of physics; higher ground clearance means higher center of gravity, and the likelihood of the vehicle turning on its side. With semi trucks, the trailer with its heavy payload had begun to jacknife as the driver locked up his brakes. When the trailer was perpendicular (90 degrees) to the road as it jacknifed, the heavy payload resulted in the trailer turning on its side, which is identical in principle to how SUVs end up rolling over on its side. Observe that some news reports show jacknifed rigs that had remained upright. These trailers were often lightly loaded or empty of a cargo payload. If its a van or reefer van that had jacknifed and remained upright, take a look at the rear doors. Loaded trailers often have seals and/or padlocks to protect the cargo from theft. Seals lets the consignee (receiver) know that the trailer doors had not been opened since the shipment left the consignor (shipper). Intact seals protects the carrier (trucking company) from shortage claims (missing freight). So long as the driver writes "seal intact" besides the area where the consignee signs acceptance of the cargo, the receiver's claim for freight shortage will be denied by the carrier, and the receiver will have to take the matter up with the consignor. If you're vague on what "seals" are, google-search or Yahoo-search "truck trailer cargo seals."

Opps got side tracked on the main topic. Anyway, back to vehicles turning on their sides; car makers have begun to equip some models with low-profile tires, which lowers the vehicle's center of gravity and diminishes the likelihood of the vehicle rolling on its side as it goes into a spin-out. However, it does not factor payload. A vehicle with low-profile tires can still turn over on its side if its heavily loaded with passengers and/or cargo, and it goes into a spin out as the driver locks up his brakes.

The solution to avoiding a vehicle turn over is to simply let go of the brakes. The trailers go into a jacknife because the tandem tires are locked up and had loss all traction with the pavements. Releasing the brakes re-establishes traction to the pavement, and the trailer begins to straighten out instead of gradually swinging to a jacknife. Ditto for high-clearance vehicles like SUVs.

 

I haul gas, diesel and asphalt. My load shifts all the time and when someone does wreck, that's why it happened.