I think I’ve posted this before but it’s relevant because the two trucks were delivering to a local school. Schools are a PITA to deliver to as very rarely does the site allow deliveries before 8am due to the “Considerate Contractors Scheme (BS)”.
There’s no deliveries between 8.30 and 9.15.
Site stops for tea break 10 until 10.30.
No access during any school breaktimes if the site crosses the playground so that’s 12 until 1 at least.
No access 2 until 3.30 because the geriatric school bus drivers have to get there early to chat and smoke around their equally elderly vehicles, way before the kids come out.
You may have to wait 3.30 until 4 if there are after school clubs going on.
You’ll be lucky if the site isn’t locked up after 4pm.
Wonder what his role in this sad story is 
merc0447:
Wonder what his role in this sad story is
Was there not something mentioned about faulty brakes at the time. Could be he was the last person to be involved in maintenance of them and was negligent.
merc0447:
Wonder what his role in this sad story is
Not doing his job properly, but then if he tells the boss “the linings are shot” and the boss wont spend the money on repairs what does the fitter do?
Would the boss’ charge of “aiding and abetting” have anything to do with giving out an unreasonable workload?
‘aiding, abetting, counselling and procuring to cause death by dangerous driving’ for the Boss
‘causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving’ for the Driver
‘two counts of manslaughter’ for the mechanic
WOW, Thats some serious bird time for all involved if found guilty.
This is why I will be very thorough with my vehicle checks and if anything is wrong with any item on the CoD sheet then it doesn’t go. It is clear that they have examined everything in this collision and that is why the mechanic and boss is in court too. Unfortunately poor maintenance and penny pinching is all too common, I threw back a vehicle because it was not legal to go on the road, I told the office and they went ape ■■■■ and ‘Billy Big Willy’ took it out instead.
Billy big willy saying he will take it anyway is an ■■■■■■■■.
The boss telling Billy big willy to take it is equally an ■■■■■■■■.
Hopefully Billy Big Willy looks at the charges, as with the boss and thinks that maybe, just maybe, taking a defective vehicle out could end up in serious jail time.
I informed head office and hopefully appropriate action is taken against all involved, I also submitted the voice recordings and pictures.
The boss of scania better watch out
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Is it possible that the fitter signed off on repairs that weren’t actually carried out?
Also I’m sorry but i think 19yr olds are too young to be driving HGV’s I wouldn’t have trusted myself at 19 I was young, dumb and full of… false bravado and I’m also pretty sure I was immortal too.
Reef:
Is it possible that the fitter signed off on repairs that weren’t actually carried out?Also I’m sorry but i think 19yr olds are too young to be driving HGV’s I wouldn’t have trusted myself at 19 I was young, dumb and full of… false bravado and I’m also pretty sure I was immortal too.
That’s you. I was 19 when I started driving large vehicles (albeit buses) but I didn’t ever have any problems due to my age. There’s some 50 year olds who don’t have the required mindset to be holding driving licences but we don’t ban all 50 years olds because of this.
Reef:
Is it possible that the fitter signed off on repairs that weren’t actually carried out?Also I’m sorry but i think 19yr olds are too young to be driving HGV’s I wouldn’t have trusted myself at 19 I was young, dumb and full of… false bravado and I’m also pretty sure I was immortal too.
I’m with you on that Reef. Those who say if you are good enough then you are old enough, are just plain wrong. That 19yr old driver did not just start his journey at the top of that hill. He drove that vehicle, and yet did not have wit to know there was something wrong with those brakes until he was going down that hill. Or did he? Which makes it even worse.
I know the response I want when I press the footbrake on my truck, if there was any deviation from that, then it does not get driven. Who would try to descend a hill, feel the brakes fade, and try to ride it out? Most drivers would respond at the first sign of any fade, by just stopping immediately. A wise head would know the consequences of a laden runaway truck on a suburban street, and would of either stopped immediately or stuffed it into a hedge or wall or anything rather than let it build up speed.
I think I may of said this earlier in this thread, but I was taught to go down a steep hill the same speed you went up it. Modern trucks may have the horses to race up a hill, but if the fitter has not been doing his job properly then those horsies won’t help you on the way down. Only a feel for driving a truck, wisdom and experience will help. Things that only come with time.
Janos:
Reef:
Is it possible that the fitter signed off on repairs that weren’t actually carried out?Also I’m sorry but i think 19yr olds are too young to be driving HGV’s I wouldn’t have trusted myself at 19 I was young, dumb and full of… false bravado and I’m also pretty sure I was immortal too.
I’m with you on that Reef. Those who say if you are good enough then you are old enough, are just plain wrong. That 19yr old driver did not just start his journey at the top of that hill. He drove that vehicle, and yet did not have wit to know there was something wrong with those brakes until he was going down that hill. Or did he? Which makes it even worse.
I know the response I want when I press the footbrake on my truck, if there was any deviation from that, then it does not get driven. Who would try to descend a hill, feel the brakes fade, and try to ride it out? Most drivers would respond at the first sign of any fade, by just stopping immediately. A wise head would know the consequences of a laden runaway truck on a suburban street, and would of either stopped immediately or stuffed it into a hedge or wall or anything rather than let it build up speed.
I think I may of said this earlier in this thread, but I was taught to go down a steep hill the same speed you went up it. Modern trucks may have the horses to race up a hill, but if the fitter has not been doing his job properly then those horsies won’t help you on the way down. Only a feel for driving a truck, wisdom and experience will help. Things that only come with time.
Your knowledge of how brakes should feel comes from experience of driving trucks, it doesn’t happen because you reach a certain age.
I also think we should wait for the facts to come out in court before we make assumptions on what happened, there have been plenty on here when it happened who immediately decided it was due to brake fade because the driver was young and didn’t know how to control a truck on a hill, it now appears not to be purely down to the driving of the 19 year old driver but goes deeper than that within the company.
I remember a case many years ago where a truck went out of control down a hill in Soweby bridge, when they checked the truck none of the brakes were serviceable, the driver, who died, was far from a youngster, but he didn’t realise there was a problem or if did he decided to continue.
Don’t start this all over. We’ll have all the usual suspects back again , banging on about using the gearbox to slow down.
To be honest , I do not understand this case , there is something strange about it , the authorities are not telling anybody what is going on with legal proceedings.
I can only guess it will all come out after the court dates.
For the media it is a very high profile case due to how many died and the little girl.
Now the mechanic is in trouble , what the hell was going on with the haulage firm but somebody knows .
To help me understand this a bit, were there two trucks with the 19 year old in the leading one and his boss behind in another?
Don’t get the aiding and abetting thing.
And why has it taken so long to decide that the crashed truck had defects. A good engineer would find that out in an afternoon.
Janos:
Reef:
Is it possible that the fitter signed off on repairs that weren’t actually carried out?Also I’m sorry but i think 19yr olds are too young to be driving HGV’s I wouldn’t have trusted myself at 19 I was young, dumb and full of… false bravado and I’m also pretty sure I was immortal too.
I’m with you on that Reef. Those who say if you are good enough then you are old enough, are just plain wrong. That 19yr old driver did not just start his journey at the top of that hill. He drove that vehicle, and yet did not have wit to know there was something wrong with those brakes until he was going down that hill. Or did he? Which makes it even worse.
I know the response I want when I press the footbrake on my truck, if there was any deviation from that, then it does not get driven. Who would try to descend a hill, feel the brakes fade, and try to ride it out? Most drivers would respond at the first sign of any fade, by just stopping immediately. A wise head would know the consequences of a laden runaway truck on a suburban street, and would of either stopped immediately or stuffed it into a hedge or wall or anything rather than let it build up speed.
I think I may of said this earlier in this thread, but I was taught to go down a steep hill the same speed you went up it. Modern trucks may have the horses to race up a hill, but if the fitter has not been doing his job properly then those horsies won’t help you on the way down. Only a feel for driving a truck, wisdom and experience will help. Things that only come with time.
Have you ever had an issue with brakes whilst loaded going down a hill?
I have. It’s ridiculously easy to say what you would have done, from the calm environment sat in front of your laptop and how you would’ve averted the disaster. Maybe you would’ve, or maybe it’ll have turned out the same or worse. Feel, wisdom and experience will help, but once it starts to go wrong, luck is your best friend.
As it was in my case, as soon as it started to go wrong, stopping was not an option, I tried.
Trouble with air brakes is that there’s no feel to the pedal. I had brakes let me down on a bus in Brisbane. Everything was perfectly ok when I tried them in the yard, before leaving and when driving normally with a full load on. It was only when the near empty bus in front of me was cut up and slammed on that I found I couldn’t stop and run up the arse of it. I wasn’t too close if the brakes had been working properly, but had nowhere to go because there was traffic beside me.
As people are saying all the time; none of us know what the circ’s are so why make it up as we go along.
There are obviously serious issues in this case to bring charged to people other than the driver.
We can’t change what has happened but hopefully it will wake certain operators up to the fact you can’t just blame the driver when it all goes wrong.
Am not Poirot, but I seem to recall the truck was speeding down the hill with the driver on the horn shouting get out of the way. Fitter is now implicated too. It won’t have been a faulty headlight bulb.
I think the investigation might have opened a massive can of worms in the haulage company and maybe the whole industry. I think it took over a year to bring charges against the driver and owner and now a few months later against a mechanic. It seems a long time to do an accident investigation for such a high profile case and bring charges.
toby1234abc:
To be honest , I do not understand this case , there is something strange about it , the authorities are not telling anybody what is going on with legal proceedings.
I can only guess it will all come out after the court dates.
It is entirely normal for criminal proceedings. The three men have so far been charged with the offences, none have been brought to trial yet.
The prosecution’s evidence will become public knowledge once it is presented to the court, but the police or CPS can’t release any information other than what offences they have been charged with as otherwise it could prejudice the outcome of the trial.
Socketset:
And why has it taken so long to decide that the crashed truck had defects. A good engineer would find that out in an afternoon.
I don’t think it will have taken that long to establish that there were faults with the vehicle, but to decide who may have had criminal responsibilty for the incident.
They won’t be charging a mechanic with manslaughter simply on the fact that the vehicle was defective. The police would have had to examine all maintenance records for the vehicles, checking invoices for parts or contracted work etc.
To charge the mechanic with manslaughter would suggest there is something very wrong or corrupt with the way the vehicles have been inspected and maintained.