Stopped at the BP garage on the Easbound A40 at Park Royal last night whilst going to work. I’d stopped for a paper and some milk and when I came out of the shop I had one of those “there’s something wrong with this picture” moments.
It was the BP tanker that was crossing the forecourt that was the problem. It was trailing it’s discharge pipes along the ground. It also didn’t have a driver. It also had a vintage Porsche 911 wedged under the front bumper. It was also dragging a golf along with it. The tangled mess came to a halt as the Porsche got pushed through a fence. The golf was, after that too came to a halt, minus most of its nearside fittings and was about 3" from my own car (lucky, lucky, lucky me)
Thats gonna be an interesting report to read. We’ve all done the handbrake thing but I wonder how many have had such consequences?
i remember i was in crowthorne quite a few years back and was del to an off licence.
i came out and truck had gone first thought it been nicked.
then i spotted it down the road in a pub car park the handbrake cable had snapped and off it went over a roundabout hitting a parked merc which was pushed into two other cars what joy i had that day.
Got out my cab one morning and started chatting to the gaffer. Had the same “What’s wrong with this picture myself.” Merc Actros with fully loaded trailer careering back past us down the airfield. Stopped eventually when it hit one of the other transport firms wagons and squashed the Sierra it was shunting with. I looked at the gaffer, he looked at me with his eyebrows raised and uttered something along the lines of “Bloody hell. That’s made my day.” What do tanker drivers get if that happens?
Off hiring some rental units from Grantham just before Xmas one of the trucks ran across the yard towards a porta cabin & tapped a van doing so.
We also around the same time Off hired a rigid reefer from some where were on booking it out it was decided to get the TM out to see it as we checked it.
The TM had the insurance form in his hands, it said slight scratch down near side, it had totalled door, fridge wall separated from base, no front step or rear lights & the side bars were a variation upon the original design, but it did also have, to be fair, lots of “slight scratching” also.
I’ve had two handbrake incidents over the last three years.
The first was when early one morning accelerating away from the roundabout in 1st gear I went to change and got the “wrong” gearstick. As I heard the air from the handrake do it’s stuff, I quickly released it but I’ve never done that since! It woke me up as well!
The second was when went to pickup a truck from the companies “top yard” outside the management offices where it had come in from a hire. I hopped in, check it was in neutral and fired it up. The air tanks were empty, so left it ticking over while went to get the paperwork. At which point the TM said “oh the handbrake is funny on this truck, its laid out back to front…” I glanced out to see that the truck had build up the air pressure and was starting its gentle meander down the yard towards the pub and the fence. Ahh, ran fast! engine off and slipped it into gear.
Doublechecked everything with that truck after that. We’ve now had the handbrake changed to “normal”!
We’ve had a few mini disasters in the yard with air brakes but most of the time it’s people who should know better! Myself including!
Had a work mate killed about 7 years ago at the Parcelforce depot in Bristol when he left the handbarke off. connected up trailer and they both started accross the yard, he tried to get into cab and as he did drivers door hit a post, he was squashed between the door and the door frame. Ever since, all royalmail/parcelforce trucks have verbal warnings in the cab. If you leave brake off and open a door message says “Warning, Handbrake not applied” If all trucks had this as standard then it may have saved his life and no doubt others as well.
There are some handbrake levers which have been known to not lock in place, while seeming to be on, they can slip off, especially when you don’t want them to.
Yes, a zook driver I know recounted his experience where he was hooking up a trailer to a tractor and when he plugged the brake air line in the whole lot lurched backwards. The tractor was at right angles to the trailer on a a slight slope, and he ended up pinning the drivers door closed with the engine running against another trailer, and his passenger door was locked. Took a while to sort that one out…
smcaul:
Had a work mate killed about 7 years ago at the Parcelforce depot in Bristol when he left the handbarke off. connected up trailer and they both started accross the yard, he tried to get into cab and as he did drivers door hit a post, he was squashed between the door and the door frame. Ever since, all royalmail/parcelforce trucks have verbal warnings in the cab. If you leave brake off and open a door message says “Warning, Handbrake not applied” If all trucks had this as standard then it may have saved his life and no doubt others as well.
I trained at Parcel Force and was told that story, I am sorry about yor m8 but since hearing that tale I am the most paranoid handbrake re-checker I know.
One good thing about ‘B’ & ‘C’ series ERF’s (probably the only good thing if I’m honest) is that the handbrake lever wasn’t sprung. Lever all the way back was trailer and unit brakes. Lift it to the right (the slot was ‘L’ shaped) into the park position and it released the trailer brakes. It didn’t protect you from leaving it off but you didn’t get the accidental releases that can occur with sprung levers. If that was ■■■■■■■ with the Volvo ‘Broms’ brake device there would be a lot less of this kind of incident.
great stories lads…reminds me of an incident a while ago…we were on a regular run to turkey and most of our back loads were wine from bulgaria or clothing from romania…but we did have a contract in istanbul…we obviously took turns to do this job and the trailer was left on a very steep hill…at the bottom was a x road…a wall…and a river…well it was the turn for the turk driver we had …so he dropped his trailer and returned to the londra camping park, 3 days later he went back to collect it…hooked under…gave it a shake…and climbed on the back…yellow air line…blue air line…then the red one…OOPS !! he forgot the handbrake…so as it gathered momentum…he jumped off…breaking his leg…the daf careered across the x road…demolished the wall…and ended up in the river…with quite a lot of damage…our boss had to fly out another driver cos this one was sacked…someone else took the trailer to the uk until the unit was repaired…talk of the fleet at the time…but just goes to show what can happen…
have a nice day
That would have been back in the days when you had to open a valve, to actually “connect up” to your trailer, I take it Truckyboy?
I did that once on one of those units. Your immediate reaction is to close the valve, which had no effect of course, you needed to disconnect the airline as well. That took even longer, because by then you had twisted the connection to ensure it was properly fitted. The delay gave your rig time to build up some speed, by the time you had disconnected your airline you got quite a jolt when it screeched to a halt.
of course, you needed to disconnect the airline as well. That took even longer, because by then you had twisted the connection to ensure it was properly fitted. The delay gave your rig time to build up some speed, by the time you had disconnected your airline you got quite a jolt when it screeched to a halt.
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