Just looking at the other A14 crash thread. At the bottom of the news article I saw this…
I find it quite incredible that the road was closed for that long!
Get the vehicle out of the way
Clear up the onions, hose the carriageway.
Open road…What takes so long■■?
A 50-tonne vehicle is understood to have flipped over in the westbound carriageway
Sounds like eh was running 6 tonne overweight as well 
Nothing like the media getting their facts right eh!
Erm… it was a curtainsider not a container!
att:
Excuse me…How and why are we assuming that they were not strapped?
Definetly not strapped, passed it on the eastbound side shortly after it happened not a strap in sight. I was told he came out the shell garage and just lost it.
n17 trucker:
att:
Excuse me…How and why are we assuming that they were not strapped?Definetly not strapped, passed it on the eastbound side shortly after it happened not a strap in sight. I was told he came out the shell garage and just lost it.
Well in that case, the driver is a nob.
How the hell can it take 7 and a half hours to get the road re-opened.
As far as I could see from the pics the central armco had not been damaged and presumably neither had the road surface.
Recovery gear is better now than its ever been so removing the trailer would surely not have been an issue and removing the onions I reckon I could have been on my hands and knees and picked them all up in less time.
It continually amazes me at just how long roads are closed for these days, for even the most minor incident.
Also, have you noticed how many roads, some quite major, that are being closed for multiple days for resurfacing.
When i was on asphalt work most roads remained open you laid one side and then did the other.
It seemed to work ok I dont remember legions of rake hands being flattened by passing traffic!
Rant over and relax !!
weeto:
Since the trailer was dragged off the dock, as in a ferry trailer which no doubt was sealed, is the driver allowed to break the seal to check the security?
If not and has no way to check the security of the load, would the Johny Foriegner get done if he hadn’t secured it?
Source: Ipswich Star Online, URL provided in this thread!
So, does that look like an ISO container or a curtainsider/tautliner?
I can well understand about not checking the contents of a sealed container etc, but this wasn’t the case was it.
As for clearing the road up, perhaps they should have asked the local farming community for assistance in sucking them up or something? I dunno how they do it… 
Saratoga:
weeto:
Since the trailer was dragged off the dock, as in a ferry trailer which no doubt was sealed, is the driver allowed to break the seal to check the security?
If not and has no way to check the security of the load, would the Johny Foriegner get done if he hadn’t secured it?Source: Ipswich Star Online, URL provided in this thread!
So, does that look like an ISO container or a curtainsider/tautliner?
I can well understand about not checking the contents of a sealed container etc, but this wasn’t the case was it.
As for clearing the road up, perhaps they should have asked the local farming community for assistance in sucking them up or something? I dunno how they do it…
Of course it was, that was a trailer of the dock so would have a seal on it, with only 2 people with the authority to remove it, the customer and customs.
Unless I am mistaken, VOSA don’t have the authority to remove a customs seal!
So, that’s the drivers cop-out for shutting the A14 for 8 hours then…
Saratoga:
So, that’s the drivers cop-out for shutting the A14 for 8 hours then…
Not really, but a few posters have said he should of checked the load, but if your not in a position to, and are unsure how a trailer or container has been loaded, you don’t drive like a ■■■■■
I was just pointing out that it would of been a sealed trailer.
Just out of interest, what is the criteria for a ferry trailer being sealed? Is it because it was carrying foodstuffs, or is there other criteria at work? Just ask, because I often pick up trailers at Parkeston, and they’ve never been sealed, but then they’ve never had foodstuffs on either.
Thanks
Gary
I picked up a chilled container on, er, Tuesday. The fridge section was built into the box and I had no instructions regarding it’s running but it was a straight 4 hour drive to it’s destination. The foodstuffs were packed in wooden crates up to the roof and I just let them get on with the unloading of it.
But I am always careful with loads when I don’t know how it’s loaded, but then I’m still a newbie in essence anyway, and don’t want to push the boundaries too much as when they push back I’ll no doubt [zb] it up… 
The exit from that petrol station has a bit of a down ramp doesn’t it? Morning traffic building up, you don’t want to delay them so it’s possible to put down a bit more power than required to ‘get out’ into the live lane?
scaniason:
Just out of interest, what is the criteria for a ferry trailer being sealed? Is it because it was carrying foodstuffs, or is there other criteria at work? Just ask, because I often pick up trailers at Parkeston, and they’ve never been sealed, but then they’ve never had foodstuffs on either.Thanks
Gary
Rule of thumb. everything is sealed on unaccompanied cross channel movements for security of load, no idea if the opening of the borders did away with it officially
!
Ah right - these trailers come over Hook - Harwich, obviously a different setup there. One of the ones I did recently was a load of high-value components to Jaguar Land Rover from Harwich - Birmingham, no seal on that at all.
Talking of seals, I collected two pallets of microwaves from a depot in Northampton on Friday, as I left the bay they handed me 5 seals and asked me to put them on the trailer, on one the rear doors and the other four, one on each corner of the curtains. There was no cord through the buckles, and I had three other collections to do, so quite what they were achieving I’m not sure - I’m quite sure if I’d undone the remaining 30-odd buckles, I could have got enough slack in the curtains to wriggle through and empty the trailer! However, they had to be fitted before they’d let me out of the gate, 20 yards from the bay where they’d been fitted…
Gary
theres no requirement for seals its only a customer thing did trailer work out of docks for years and wud always break the seals if it wasnt a regular job and 9 out of 10 of the trailers we pulled the notes were in the back ! . i think it took so long to clear up as thay wer looking for a hard shoulder to cry on
As far as I am aware, ferry trailers/ro-ro trailers do not, on the whole, have seals. These are mainly put on at customer premises to provide an illusion of security. There are no legal resons why a driver cannot break a seal on said trailer to check load security. Customer might be a bit hacked off because his seal isn’t on, but not as hacked off as when his load is all over the A14. However, if the trailer has a customs seal on, this is a totally different matter, don’t touch.
Why any driver would be stupid enough not to spend 20 minutes securing a load, rather than 7.5 hours clearing up the A14 is beyond me…
bald bloke:
Add some baked beans to that lot and you’ll have tear gas
Lol’d
Superb