Hard Break...Driver death

i would had chain it up. just because straps can get cut and have some flex. Also in a belly wrap, if the load moves forward, the securement gets tighter. not sure if this load was belly wrap but it might had slow it down just to survival

 

I'm belly wrappin next load of rail track ...I'm always learning here ! ..sad someone had to die for me to learn !

 

A quick look at the video, it looks like it's just flat steel 1/2 inch thick and about 18 inches wide. six bundles high. About twenty feet per stack. It might not be the"right way" but it's my way: i would have tossed 3 belly straps after the third bundle was put on. Then 4 straps across the top(assuming the weight is 20k lbs per stack. 1 extra strap for each portion of 5k lbs) Some guys so chains are better, they won't run through. I use so much padding any where my strap touches product that they don't rub through. I also use more than the minimum required straps so if one does come loose, I'm still covered. Tighten your belt straps working from inside out. Then the top straps, again, inside out. Then repeat the process. I also inspect my chains and straps at each unload as i wind them up to store. If any show signs of snags, tears or wear marks, i hit them with red spray paint (which i keep in the same side box as i store the straps in for quick access). Next time i go home that strap comes off the truck and a new one goes on. This is why i carry at least 25 straps, so i always have enough spares with me. And at least 1 full case at home in the garage.

Now something that you will have to learn when you switch to flatbed. No matter how you secure a load. Some product will shoot forward like a missile. You have to drive with that always in the fore front of your mind. Never put yourself in a position where you have to hit the brakes hard. So you gotta always be looking ahead at what traffic is doing in front of you. The only hard brake you should ever have to make is when that guy pared you and slams on his brakes trying to make you hit him so he can call his favorite ambulance chasing lawyer.

A note about headache racks. Sure, they are no longer required by law. But it's freaking stupid not to have one. Even the normal not load rated aluminum ones can provide enough extra resistance to make the difference between needing to buy a new truck and your kids carrying your casket. It's like a hatd hat, it won't help when the crane drops that 10k lb beam on you, but it will keep the shackle from splitting your head open when the operator swings the boom back towards the load for the next lift.

 

If your straps are flexing, you need to give a little more push on that bar. Or buy different straps. I never have straps flex. And proper padding prevents them from getting cut.

 

The inside of that cab was a mess. Trust me. I've seen this scenario play out before - up close and personal.

But what does it matter? Why the morbid interest?

This person had a name; was someone's son and probably had a family.

Every time I was involved in one of these brutal situations, we always went to great lengths to preserve the dignity of the decedent. To deny the rubber-neckers their eyeful of tragedy we would hold up sheets until the body could be loaded into the transporting vehicle.

I never took any joy in someone else's suffering and find it difficult to understand how others can.

 

Oh ya, definately a steel welded to frame headache rack...jeepers, if I didnt have one, Id never make it above 40 mph!! I did it with conduit all the time back in the day and was always nervous...
Stacked things; bundled things; Often the one in the middle can be loose...

 

Joy? I doubt its that very often...Morbid, yes...Nothin wrong with me, but I wonder too, exactly exactly what happened...
I think he was pushed up under the steering wheel under the dash bent in half the wrong way...crazy
Cant imagine being the guys who gotta clean these scenes up, investigators etc etc..When a body is completely entangled in metal do they ever chop off a part to get the rest of you out? I dont wanna know...but dang it, I just wondered it!!

I do regret searching, and finding the horrible gore these scenes create...one day of seeing a bunch of these driver death photos, and one pilot being set on fire in a cage by the taliban, and im actually messed up forever!! LOL for real...I wish I hadnt seen that crap..
Morbid Curiosity killed the cat!!!

 

Two things about the securement. First, it doesn't look like there is any padding or edge protectors for the straps. Second, there's no twist in the straps, which will maximize vibration. On loads like the all edges have to be protected AND I would put a full twist in the straps. Doing it this way I rarely have to retighten a strap.

Two days ago I was southbound (west) on I-44 running through Lawton, OK. A CRST truck passed me, running with a cherried out yellow long nose Pete. A white haired gentleman at the wheel. He had five wooden crates on the deck, each about 12' long, 4' wide, and 4' tall. The first thing I noticed was he had no twist in his straps, and they were loudly vibrating against the crates. Then I noticed he had no edge protectors! As he started to pull back in front of me the last strap on his load snapped, leaving 12-15' strap flapping around his trailer tires. The remaining strap on the last crate had vibrated so loose it was catching at least 6"of air at the top. No CB response and he was at least 5 mph over the speed limit in heavy traffic. I backed off and watched in horror as 4 wheelers snuggled in to tailgate him.

Belly wraps are a good idea on a load like this, but you need much longer than standard straps. Hard to come by, but well worth it.

Regarding chaining versus straps, most of the loads I pull we would get fired for using chains. The pipes, bottom tools, etc. for oil rigs are precision finished, you can't nick them with chains. We get a lot of practice making sure our loads are well strapped. I almost always have at least two belly wraps on each load, sometimes four or more. I use a 4" extendable paint stick to quickly do my wraps.

 

Looks like beams from a metal building manufacturer. They load them with gaps between the beams so a sling can be passed around them for crane unload and to preserve the paint.

Sometimes you can choke the top row together, but often there is something on top that will crush or bend easily. There isn't much you can do with that many gaps in the load, not against a hard brake.

I see people all the time running around using the DOT+1 rule of thumb with these loads, that's just not enough.

 

Head boards or headache racks have not been required in years. A study showed they will not stop a load of beams, just like this from going through everything. Once that steel starts sliding it has A LOT of momentum and energy.

I don't care how many straps or chains you have on. Steel beams can still slide through them pretty easy. I always drove like the load was not tied down.