Carryfast:
newmercman:
So ABS has been mandatory for quite a few years now, do you not think there would’ve been failures of every component and process in an ABS system by now?
This whole thing is a witch hunt, contrary to initial reports, the lorry seems in reasonable shape, the lorry in front made it down the hill without a problem, so it points towards driver error, maybe the driver was checking out a yummy mummy taking her kids home from school, looked back at the road and panicked?
We do at least know that there have been questions raised regarding EBS systems.But yes I’d agree the absence of other previous examples in the case of ABS would be a problem regarding that question.
As for a runaway truck caused by driver error.I’d go with cooked brakes starting with the block change downshift when turning into the junction and the wrong gear going down the hill.In which case we’ll have 8 cooked brakes including 8 blue drums and glazed sets of linings.Together with the thing being found in whatever gear puts it well into the yellow,getting on for red,band at 20 mph and/or at least an answer to the question what gear was it in son when it ran away, saying same.
What you have been suggesting does not chime with my experience of ABS or EBS faults. With the information available I do not think it’s a rabbit hole that’s worth continued burrowing down. Although it has to be considered that the VOSA investigation has been badly wanting .
Unless further evidence appears it is currently all pointing to driver error. The main bits for me are:
The evidence he did not pull up to turn into the junction, at the top of the hill, in a gradual fashion making full use of engine braking.
Witness evidence, in the vehicle behind, he could smell the brakes.
Witness evidence, from layby on the hill, he seemed to be actually accelerating to catch his boss.
It then added up to a sort of perfect storm, in a heavily laden vehicle with drum brakes more prone to fade than other makes or designs. Massive error number one was starting the turn into the hill descent with hot brakes. Massive error number two was actually accelerating once on the hill - which I suspect at that point, if it was the first time he had been that route he may not have anticipated how steep it was or the significance of the signs warning of the gradient. Getting that bit of acceleration back under control most likely put another big, and unnecessary, demand on the service brakes.
I then think he was either following his boss too closely, or there was a lack of forward planning, and he did not adequately foresee the likelihood of his boss stopping at the crossing outside the school which necessitated the service brakes conjuring up an emergency stop that they were too overheated to provide and tipped them over the edge to the point they were so hot they failed catastrophically.
Hard to theorise how anyone would react but I do suspect many wiser, more experienced heads, would have immediately realised that the likelihood of riding your way out of it was slim and a collision with his bosses truck was the better option but I don’t really criticise him for that.
