Anyone see the smash on Monday night at the top of the M1 ramp at J28 between a Featherstone’s artic and a mixer 
Guess who’s unit it was that was totally destroyed… 
BBL to tell the tale and seek some advice; one of our drivers has just belled me up to ask if I’m gonna go down for a pint so disappearing for a swift “few”.
Okay, the story goes thus :
If you’ve read my “trailer on fire” thread then you’ll know the tale of what happened to me last Friday. I defected my unit and trailer on the Friday afternoon and have been in the low roof FH12 this week while that one’s been looked at.
Tuesday afternoon I heard that one of our drivers had been involved in a serious smash sometime Monday night. Made some enquiries and found out which driver it was and where it happened etc.
Today (Thursday) I belled up the garage and asked how the repairs were coming along on my motor (L444MFT) to be told that it had been inspected over the weekend, no defects were found with the braking system and it had also undergone a Ministry thorough examination on Wednesday (why ) and they’d also not found any defects with it.
I asked when I’d be getting it back as a low roof FH12 wasn’t really ideal for a guy of 6’3 to be doing 5 nights away a week in it and the response was, “not for a good while yet as there are other more important defects with other wagons to attend to first”. Peeved off at this I belled up the gaffer and spoke to him about it, pretty agitated that allegedly, there wasn’t anything wrong with the braking system on it and the Almighty[/b] Ministry had had it and done a rolling road brake test on it (a total waste of time as that does notat all simulate the real life no-brakes situation I was faced with last Friday fully laden) and found nothing wrong.
It then transpired that the accident on Monday night was caused by an alleged brake failure and the guy driving wasn’t able to stop quick enough at the top of the M1 J28 ramp for the A38 and stoved the unit into the back of a mixer 
. Further to that, the unit in question was my own - L444MFT - which I’d defected only 3 days previously for weak brakes. Ho-hum.
Needless to say a heated argument ensued questioning why 1) my motor was being driven by another driver when I was told it was still off road waiting to be fixed and I had to endure the low roof motor and 2) why the motor had been let back on the road after an alleged thorough check-over by the mechanic who allegedly found nothing wrong with the braking system. Do the alarm bells not ring here that I defected it Friday for weak brakes and then 3 days later the unit is written off in a serious accident with another wagon for the brakes failing on it
The TM disagrees. The reason he disagrees is that he reckons that after the accident the driver (fortuntely unhurt) phyisically felt the wheels of the rig in turn and the units’ wheels were piping hot (indicating that the brakes were working as normal) but the trailer wheels were clap cold, thus leading him to the conclusion that the trailer brakes weren’t working (a different trailer to the one I had on Friday). However, the Ministry did a thorough examination of both the unit and the trailer involved in the accident and could find no fault with either of them, brakes nor otherwise 
.
Not knowing the driver personally I cannot comment on the accident without having evidence to back up my claim but to me, from the conclusion by the Ministry it seems to narrow it down to a possible three causes :
1) The trailer has an intermittent braking problem which wasn’t found when the Ministry carried out their tests.
2) There is some incompatibility problem between the written off unit and the trailer in question (the trailer is less than a year old, in good condition and no faults were noticed by myself when pulling it only a few days before with my unit (the unit involved in the accident)).
3) The driver was driving like a [zb] and didn’t notice the traffic backed up down the ramp soon enough, couldn’t stop in time etc.
The problem we’re faced with now - and the driver in question more importantly - is that when the Plod arrived the first questions they ask are :
1) Is anyone hurt (no).
2) How did it happen (the brakes failed).
His answer to question no.2, in my opinion, was the wrong one. I believe that in this situation, one should never tell the police something like that as the first thing they will do is bell up the Ministry and when the magic words “brake failure” come about they’re there like flies round [zb]. I believe he would’ve been better saying something like, “foot slipped off brake pedal” etc and the Plod would have merely said well exchange details and bell the wrecker up, job done and then go to the gaffer and tell him the real story so that he can get it sorted without the unwanted involvement from the Ministry.
Now I don’t know for sure, but I’ve heard that the Plod have received the Ministry’s conclusion and are wanting to point the finger at someone and the guy who was driving is looking at a dangerous driving charge even though he’s adamant that the brakes on trailer weren’t working at the time of the incident although they seemed to be working fine earlier in his journey. So what do you do
Just as a tangent to that, I did a drop and swap with another guy a few weeks ago and it was another companies trailer I picked up. The brakes on the trailer were clearly not working after I’d negotiated a few sets of lights and roundabouts but then later in the journey they strangely came back to life and you could even hear the air releasing in them which is usually a tell tale sign, so I can understand what the driver is saying ( I defected the trailer in question straight away after returning to its base), but if the Ministry have done a check and found no faults where do you go from there, especially when you’re looking at being faced with a dangerous driving charge heading your way
I’m also pretty peeved that my unit (or should I say the unit that was allocated to me) has been written off by another driver when it still had some of belongings in it which I may be unable to repossess. Apart from the brake problem there was nothing wrong with it and I’d become quite attached to it let’s say. It used to go like hell and outpull a 420 no problem and drove straight as a die. Now I’m left in the low roof FH12 through no fault of my own whilst the driver who wrecked mine merely goes swanning off back to his own Globey which was in the garage for its clutch doing 
Pretty cheesed off at the moment 
Rob there’s nowt worse than somebody else piling your motor up, but after reading the above I think I must have a say 
Firstly the Brakes Failed, the driver stated that, that is his opinion full stop, to hell with his foot slipped off the pedal, why should he make himself look incompetent when his brakes failed?
You say the brakes were piping hot? I would say that is a brake problem, the brakes do get hot with frequent stopping and starting or down hill driving, but you’ve stated he just could’nt stop at the TOP of the ramp after travelling on the M1, this to me sounds like the brakes were badly adjusted and have been heating up through friction whilst driving, I may be an exception, but it’s very rear I need to brake going uphill the gearbox is used for slowing then the brake for the last few yards if required, this certainly would’nt give enough time to overheat the brakes into brake fade.
Trailer brakes cold? well in my opinion it could be a sign of the trailer brakes not working, but then again, how often had the driver been braking? they only heat up from the friction of being used a lot.
I had a Brand New Seddon Atkison when the old H reg plates came out in the early 90’s, after travelling down hill the brakes went and I hit the back of a bus, immediately it was put down to my fault as nothing was found wrong with the brakes, despite my denials, the truck was only about 3 months old, it was run on a rolling road (Empty) despite being fully loaded at the time of the accident, no problem was found.
About 5 weeks later, the brakes failed on the Sister Truck (Consecutive Reg Numbers) so the Ministry were determined to find out why both trucks suffered brake failure, mine was luckily still away for body work repair so had not been touched mechanically, when the ministry took the wheels off and began looking at the Brake Drums, they were found to have small cracks in the drums, both trucks had suffered from faulty drums which failed when they became hot by expanding away from the brake shoes, the 4 drums on each wheel were the same, the verbal warning I’d recieved was immediately withdrawn and the “Driver Error” retracted.
So in my opinion after my experience, I would say it’s possible that a similar thing had happened with your truck, of course they wont fins a problem when the brakes are cold or it’s run on a rolling road for a few minutes.
Rob K:
I asked when I’d be getting it back as a low roof FH12 wasn’t really ideal for a guy of 6’3 to be doing 5 nights away a week in it and the response was, “not for a good while yet as there are other more important defects with other wagons to attend to first”.
I assume the other defects would be the cement mixer in the grill overloading the front axle. 
Can’t really help a lot with the brakes problem, but does seem strange to have 2 braking problems on the same truck with different drivers, however a full investigation would be unlikely. The ministry beleive it’s driver error as they checked the vehicle and you boss would be happy with that as any mechanical problems would come back on him. The only way you might take this further is to talk to the union, but I wouldn’t hold your breath. As for your truck being given to another driver well it is a business and they need to keep things moving, but its a shame they couldn’t have bought you back to swap motors and rough that you lose your motor due to the actions of another driver.
I remember years ago I used to drive an F7 and the self adjusters used to cause the brakes to get hot when running on motorways, so when you came to the exit the brakes were always week, I used to deefect it but the brakes were never checked apart from when they were cold so appeared to be ok. I have never heard of this problem on more modern trucks though
faulty foot valve possibly i rolled into the back of a car foot flat on brake nothing pulled H brake it just touched car no damage i was mt but i nearly made a mess of me pants let H brake off foot brake worked no air leaks no sign of any faults
Not making any accusations, but “I’ve since heard” that the yellow line wasn’t connected…
Rob, how do you get yourself into so many scrapes?? lolol
TheBear:
Rob, how do you get yourself into so many scrapes?? lolol
NOT ME THIS TIME 
"IT WASN’T MEEE, IT WASN’T MEEE "
Rob K:
Not making any accusations, but “I’ve since heard” that the yellow line wasn’t connected…
Well, it aint unkown for sure, and would explain the cold trailer brakes and lack of stopping power! I reckon that type of thing happened more when there were taps on the air lines, easy to forget turning it on!
Mal.
Rob K:
Not making any accusations, but “I’ve since heard” that the yellow line wasn’t connected…
its also possible that the line was snagged on the corner of the trailer.
very common on reefe work. close coupled trailers n all
When I read this my first thought was yellow line!
If rob is going down hill at Halifax with brakes on fire or smoking then there is pressure going to the trailer. At J 28 with hot unit brakes and cold trailer drums suggests otherwise. It seems as though these happenings are unrelated but was an unlucky co-incidence.
It was a different trailer so the fault cant be blamed on overheating the brakes on Friday.
Mal said about the old system with taps and you could forget to turn them on.
I have had the problem albeit with a drawbar, scrambling about under the body in the dark connecting the suzies. With the automatic C type couplings if you dont push the internal valve far enough it doesnt allow air through or it restricts it. The red line is easier to know this because the brakes are not released.
The best part of this story was that no-one was hurt and it was only an old Volvo
Perhaps the yellow line was kinked slightly ,the air goes through but has difficulty coming off ,therefore the brakes stick on.It can be a common occurrence on close coupled trailers. The driver who had the accident might have picked this up and left the line off on purpose, especially if he knew of the first problem. Our fleet which are Scanias sadly are going through air lines like nobodies business, so usually there is a good stock back at base. The older model ie X reg have no problems|||
Rob. You have a PM
i ues to have a trailer that would, when braking release the brakes, so you ended up with no brakes on the trailer, it was as though the ABS had cut in and would not let you put the brakes back on, it did not matter how light or hard you braked, and it was intermittent, but nobody would listen… new job 