Own Account Driver:
cupidstunt:
I’ve had blowouts on front tyres twice and both times I have been able to control the vehicle to a safe stop on the hard shoulder. Can anyone explain why, if this is indeed a blowout, the driver hasn’t managed the same in this situation?
If it blows out on the inside and it happens to react against the chassis/wheelarch etc. It forces the steering in/out.
You’ve got a wheel rim carrying tonnes of weight suddenly collapsing onto what was an inflated and rolling tyre.It’s obvious that the resulting change in resistance between wheel and road will be just like applying the brakes to that specific wheel.
muckles:
Juddian:
Something’s going to change soon, this escalating situation is not going to be allowed to continue, and we’re only just going into the bad weather period when the roads get slippy and the days shorten.
I wonder who will be the first major player to offer serious money for drivers, but by Christ are they going to cherry pick, someone will kick it off, the industry is going to have to admit its allowed and encouraged this race to the bottom, and they are going to have to put it right.
Even though I agree with your sentiments, I think we should get proper details of the incident before we lay blame at the industry, I also think wages overall won’t rise until one of the major players crack and change their payment and recruitment procedures, but I also doubt this will happen, if we do get into a situation where trucks are stood and loads remain undelivered.
Think this is going to be more of an HGV in the hands of private individuals issue looking at the pictures.
cupidstunt:
I’ve had blowouts on front tyres twice and both times I have been able to control the vehicle to a safe stop on the hard shoulder. Can anyone explain why, if this is indeed a blowout, the driver hasn’t managed the same in this situation?
I’ve never had a steering axle blowout, but I was told but a more experienced driver not to brake if you get one as this will cause the vehicle to swerve in the direction of the blown out tyre.
Total:
Blowout from what I read. Very unfortunate.
Doesn’t necessarily excuse the driver though. Could have been caused by a tyre defect he missed before setting off, in which case he has blood on his hands.
Proper walk round checks aren’t exactly in fashion from what I see everyday.
rob22888:
Total:
Blowout from what I read. Very unfortunate.
Doesn’t necessarily excuse the driver though. Could have been caused by a tyre defect he missed before setting off, in which case he has blood on his hands.
Proper walk round checks aren’t exactly in fashion from what I see everyday.
Silly comment, really. Could have been equally likely to be caused by all sorts of other factors.
Actrosman:
Iirc, they said that the truck (in the above video) had a steering malfunction…was it a bolt sheared off or similar and caused the n/s wheel to suddenly turn left?
Yes I was told that too ,I won’t say where though 
I remember thinking to myself that one of the bad things about driving a train was that if you saw something on the same track as you ahead, and you were moving at speed - you’d barely have time to cross yourself before impact which was totally unavoidable by the point you made eye contact with the impending disaster ahead.
Perhaps Steering Axle blowouts are the HGV equivalent?
Even that video “in the real world” above didn’t produce the kind of move I’d expect from a LHS front blowout… The thing seemed to boing UP rather than just collapse down on that side.! 
A collapse though would jerk the steering wheel out of your hands, a struggle to hold even with one’s hands at 10-to-2 on the wheel like we’re supposed to do.
The other place I guess one doesn’t want to be - is cruising in the fast lane coming the other way for miles and miles…
Doing thus would surely increase one’s probability of a head-on impact with a truck coming the other way through the central reservation!
We have the statistics for road deaths over the years and all… But has anyone compiled a set of data that corresponds to different scenarios that seem to keep happening over and over?
I mean itemized like this for example…
3880 deaths in 1998
1% Ill at the wheel
4% Under the influence
8% Speeding
14% Fatigue
18% Tailgating/could not stop in time
22% Head on collision, regardless of fault
25% Vehicle Failure
8% Other causes not listed above
(Where you have overlap/crossover you take the more major cause, and don’t double count it with the more minor one.
Eg. If you’re drunk, and have pulled up for a sleep out of fatigue, then if death occurs within YOUR vehicle - it counts as “Under the influence”.
The recent minibus crash would be 0 deaths from DD/DR (because the AIM driver didn’t die) and 0 deaths from tailgating (Fedex also survived) but all 8 deaths within the minibus might get counted as “Driver Fatigue”. This might seem a very harsh way of counting such bleak data, but if public awareness improved as to what kind of set-ups caused the greater risk - then lives would surely be saved by people simply being more careful on our roads?
Doesn’t look like a horse lorry to me. Might have been once but certainly isn’t one now.
Does seem to have ‘living’ though so might be one of those festival trucks that people seem to live in.
Winseer:
Even that video “in the real world” above didn’t produce the kind of move I’d expect from a LHS front blowout… The thing seemed to boing UP rather than just collapse down on that side.!
A collapse though would jerk the steering wheel out of your hands, a struggle to hold even with one’s hands at 10-to-2 on the wheel like we’re supposed to do.
You wouldn’t generally see the split second part where the rim collapses down onto the delated flat tyre because it’s too fast and shrouded in the smoke of what remains of the tyre now clamped to the road surface resulting in a mismatch in rolling speed.The steering having been snatched to the deflate side by the clamping forces and the sudden increase in rolling resistance effectively acting as a one wheel brake.The resulting sudden swerve then obviously causing the side of the vehicle to lift on the same side as the direction of the turn.
More real world examples which bust the myth of the ‘controllable’ steer axle blow out.The third video example below actually capturing the rim collapsing onto the deflated tyre and pulling the steering over to the left.
youtube.com/watch?v=9LkLeljt4t0
youtube.com/watch?v=UKXH8C-wtcs
youtube.com/watch?v=7sZtuDFMqFQ 1.47 - 1.55 , 5.29 - 5.38
Why haven’t they solved the problem of crossovers by now with all the technology and materials available in the last twenty years ?
There was a suggestion years ago to build an earth bank between the carriageways, in the event of an accident, it would save a lot of lives, you’d have more of a chance of surviving, hitting someone going in the same direction or even stopped.
They could have a gap for emergency vehicles to turn around in every mile or so and there would be no rubbernecking from the opposite carriageway causing more accidents or slow downs like you get now.
Sadly, it’s a cost factor to why they have not, well it’s about time proper concrete barriers were implemented.
A blow out is a a pure accident and can’t be compared to the last collision.
I just hope the injured pull through.
Gembo:
The truck looks like a pile of s***. Certainly not one of the major players this time!
Well considering the truck appears to be a horse box I suspect it was being driven by a private individual.
Juddian:
Something’s going to change soon, this escalating situation is not going to be allowed to continue, and we’re only just going into the bad weather period when the roads get slippy and the days shorten.
I wonder who will be the first major player to offer serious money for drivers, but by Christ are they going to cherry pick, someone will kick it off, the industry is going to have to admit its allowed and encouraged this race to the bottom, and they are going to have to put it right.
At the end of the day they can put more and more monitoring box ticking crap on vehicles to spy on the driver and make the vehicle even more automatic than it already is, but all that does is make it easier for the plank to do his worse, all he has to do now is select D and press the loud pedal, job dumbed down to idiot level and lo and behold idiots are out there doing what they do.
High time, and i’ve called for this many times previously, that a vocational driver’s insurance claim history was linked into their vocational driving licence, so prospective employers and their insurers can avoid the motley crew who leave a trail of destruction in their wake, course that does mean they’ll have to check licences unlike at least one operator now so far up crap creek that i’ll be surprised if they survive.
Bonus for those better staff is that the shortage of proper drivers becomes really acute, leading to good drivers being sought £££.
I was under the impression insurance companies are already doing this?
madmackem:
cupidstunt:
I’ve had blowouts on front tyres twice and both times I have been able to control the vehicle to a safe stop on the hard shoulder. Can anyone explain why, if this is indeed a blowout, the driver hasn’t managed the same in this situation?
I’ve never had a steering axle blowout, but I was told but a more experienced driver not to brake if you get one as this will cause the vehicle to swerve in the direction of the blown out tyre.
There’s so much useful information that could form part of a drivers CPC module but what do you get? Lessons on how to get in and out of the cab…
for the drivers sake I hope it was a blow out, the lorry looks a right heap and if it was a defect that caused it the driver will have to live with that fact for the rest off his life.
My nearside front blew out pulling a loaded 16ft2 trailer and I comfortably made it another half mile to get off the highway properly.
I wonder if this thing beig a rigid makes any difference (?) or the speed it was going.
Presumably it was in the middle or outside lane? We’ll await the details.
Own Account Driver:
rob22888:
Total:
Blowout from what I read. Very unfortunate.
Doesn’t necessarily excuse the driver though. Could have been caused by a tyre defect he missed before setting off, in which case he has blood on his hands.
Proper walk round checks aren’t exactly in fashion from what I see everyday.
Silly comment, really. Could have been equally likely to be caused by all sorts of other factors.
Why is it silly? Don’t we check our tyres for defects that could lead to blowouts?
Sure, it could have been something else, but then again it couldn’t. We’re all speculating here.
Carryfast:
Dr Damon:
Conor:
From my experience of blowouts on just about every single hub including both front ones it shouldn’t be causing accidents like this. The two front axle ones I’ve had have resulted in nothing more than having to let off the accelerator and steer over to the hard shoulder, even when with one of the events I was pulling a milk tanker.
Totally agree very unlikely to send you through the central reservation.
Meanwhile in the real world.
youtube.com/watch?v=WNXtskqaZ08 0.08 - 0.20
In the real world nowadays many front wheel blowouts cause no great problem.
Tyre technology has vastly improved in recent years and I guarantee the biggest majority are saved.
The ones that are not saved are usually caused by other factors.
Sand Fisher:
Gembo:
The truck looks like a pile of s***. Certainly not one of the major players this tgime!
Well considering the truck appears to be a horse box I suspect it was being driven by a private individual.
Of what relevance is that?
Winseer:
mattecube:
Actrosman:
One of the ‘breaking news’ notifications I got came up saying the lorry had ‘deliberately’ gone through the CenRes
You seem to be trying to whip up controversiaty in the light of a tragic event
Grow up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzZnrjwA4LI
The same argument was made over this old bit of footage - that the driver might have been intending suicide.
Surely “A front blowout” would be more likely though?
I don’t remember hearing that it was in fact a “Heart Attack” as one single comment below the footage suggested…
Would you do that though? Lunge sharply to the left in one’s death throes?
I think it was failure of the drag link if I recall - basically total and immediate loss of steering.