A friend of mine, mid 20’s, recently took up truck driving getting a job with a local company on bulkers, curtainsiders and stepframes mostly agricultural related. Unfortunately last week he took the “bulk tipper” bit too literally and turned the whole shebang over on a country A road. He’s battered and bruised, nobody else injured.
It happened on a slightly downhill lefthander with the truck and trailer ending up on the RHS on it’s side just after the road straightened. Luckily nothing coming the other way. He’s a young lad who may or may not have a job this week and I’m not so I’m not posting to have a laugh at his expense or shout about the potential for injured puppies.
He’d be interested to have an idea of the consequences on his licence. Is this likely to be seen as dangerous or careless ? He says he wasn’t sure of his speed but having known him for a few years let’s assume he may have been close to the limiter ! He does reckon he’d a soft trailer tyre on the right though which under the circumstances I’d probably shut up about if I were him.
I reiterate, no injury to any children, kittens or puppies and I’m sure some of you will be happy to hear it’s an XF105.
I had a lad do this with one of my wagons after 7 days working for me. If the police are anything like they were with me they’ll do absolutely nothing so long as no one is injured. The copper at the scene where my wagon was rolled was more interested in ringing his mates and laughing at my misfortune than he was at doing any investigative work.
Had it not been for me retrieving the cab phone out of the footwell and establishing that said nob head had been in the phone at the time of the incident then he would have got away Scot free after leaving me with a near £50k insurance bill.
He did eventually go to court for driving without due care and attention and was fined £160 and given 6 points on his licence which was really no consolation for me at the time.
Matt.
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I remember that thread well Matt, you deserved far better from him cos you’d already given the pillock another chance following an incident before the rollover as i recall.
Its things like this why many operators have an minimum age and/or experience requirement, its a big gamble for someone to take on a new driver, more so these days IMHO where any fool can get a lorry going where at one time you needed a bit of nous to get the thing out the gate without deafening the street with grinding gears bringing the gaffer out of his office like an olympic sprinter to ■■■■■■ the lorry back (those of us with nous left it in one gear till out of earshot 
)…my own opinion which few will share is that lorries have got far too easy to drive now so those who wouldn’t have wanted to or been allowed anywhere near one even twenty years ago can now steer them down the motorway…not saying we should go back to Gardner 180’s crash boxes and no power steering but until the electronics are in place to limit speeds on bends according to GPS (autonomous vehicle) then these things will continue to happen.
Just shows the importance of having the right guvnor/trainer/assessor check new applicants out, less emphasis on ticking boxes and knowing the highway code by heart, more emphasis on lets see if this person can drive a bloody lorry.
Implications for him?
Very little i expect especially if the old bill don’t nick him, he can get himself onto an agency, or several one after another to muddy feedback, and start a new history, probably find the agri and similar local business will know his name mind so they might be out the window in the district for some years to come.
Points on his licence for due care won’t matter, he can say he had a prang in his car or any old guff, he’s at the right time in the year to get a few months new driving history established.
Wider implications…operators if you have any nous at all keep the good drivers you already have, that means treating them with respect and paying them a decent rate for reasonable hours or more enlightened operators will relieve you of the better ones.
One answer for this as we’ve discussed before, if a vocational drivers insurance record was linked automatically to their licence, then any prospective employer could check out what they are getting and make their choice, till that happens (doubt it will, data protection or some other ■■■■■■■■) they’re in the dark.
I’m surprised lorry insurers haven’t already got a list of names that their clients won’t be covered for, maybe they have but its not yet common knowledge.
Thanks for the replies boys.
Must say I’m surprised that a rollover seems to be taken so leniently, good news for my mate though. It’s crossed my mind a few times the implications if Mrs Wifie in her 20 yo Clio had been coming the other way after a visit to Tesco !
As for my mate, he’s always had a heavy foot in a car but I thought he’s screw the nut in a truck especially as trucking’s in the family. Classic too much confidence, no experience scenario. Shame really as he’s a smart lad not a clown except in this case he is !
The police rarely get involved unless there are injuries to innocent parties or then can prove the accident was caused by speeding,as we all know you can cause a roll over and stay within the speed limit.
I once had a rollover myself on the roundabout just as you get onto the M1 n/b at the Tinsley viaduct next to Medowhall. My load was 4 packs of wooden slates for the trailer beds for Montracon I had picked up from Felixtowe and they were the full length of the trailer almost and took 3 forklifts to lift them and put on at the same time.
I put 6 straps over the load and set off back to Barnsley up the A14 and A1 (this was before the A1 had the roundabouts removed at Blyth, Markham Moor, Stamford and I got upto Catcliffe where I came off to go to McDonald’s near the industrial estate with no problems. I decided to go past my old workplace to have a nosey and go under the viaduct and get back on the M1 that way, I got to the lights at the end of the viaduct which were at red and waited till they went to green.
I set off from them and as I was going around the roundabout to get onto the entry slip road I saw a police car in the left hand lane parked behind a car who was replacing a flat tyre, I checked my o/s mirror to see if anything was in the right hand lane and there wasn’t so just steered slightly to the right. The next thing is the steering wheel shoots back the other way, I check my mirrors to see the trailer wheels leaving the road and it all seemed to happen in slow motion and I just braced myself for the impending outcome.
Stupidly I didn’t have my seatbelt on and fell from the drivers side into the passenger side footwell and everything in I had in the cab seemed to fall on top of me. Luckily I had only cut my head open where my flasks had hit me 
and loads of folk came running upto the truck to see if I was ok, telling me not to move etc. About 5 police cars turned up, the helicopter got called out and the fire brigade plus ambulance. The fire brigade came before the ambulance and they put me on one of those support boards for your back and put my neck in a brace as a precaution then when the ambulance came I was off to Rothrham General to be checked over.
I was questioned by the old bill under caution at the hospital and whilst being questioned the police at the scene came through on the radio wanting him to ask me if I wanted my ■■■■ mags back which were strewn all over the road!
I didn’t here from the police for about 8 week then out of the blue the rang me up wanting to go to their headquarters at Tinsley to answer some more questions the next day 
Luckily I was back at the yard and our gaffer sorted it out for me to go. Basically they were trying to do me for driving without due care and attention I said I was getting a solicitor and they said I didn’t need one, I said I was getting one and rang the URTU Union up who I’m a member of and they got me one sorted stright away which I thought was fantastic considering the short time they had to sort one out which was about 8 hour 
Anyway when I was getting questioned they said I was driving without due care and attention so my solicitor came stright back with the tacho proves I was only doing about 10mph, the weather was sunny so the road was dry and some over stuff which basically showed it was not a case of me driving like a ■■■■ it was the unforeseen obstruction I had to get around and the camber on the roundabout that caused me to go over. Also the load was still strapped to the trailer bed when it was rightened up.
I rolled my car at 25 mph paying attention to the road. All came down to a greasy section of road and an embankment. Not the same as a wagon i know. But genuine accidents do happen
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I rolled over and as it was just me involved I went on a 1 day course which cost me £160. Most of my belongings were binned either broke or covered in blood so had to replace them, spent 2 weeks in hospital and 8 weeks at home in total in the following year having 4 operations on my right arm as I went over drivers side and caught my arm on the road.
So from a police point of view no issues for me or my license but an arm covered in scars will slow me down more then punishment from the law.
Juddian:
One answer for this as we’ve discussed before, if a vocational drivers insurance record was linked automatically to their licence, then any prospective employer could check out what they are getting and make their choice, till that happens (doubt it will, data protection or some other ■■■■■■■■) they’re in the dark.
I’m surprised lorry insurers haven’t already got a list of names that their clients won’t be covered for, maybe they have but its not yet common knowledge.
+1
It seems thay can link us having a prang at work and penalize our private car insurance because of it. I see no reason why they can’t begin to weed out the ‘had a bump the other week, it was the other guys fault’ driver that every firm has.
Munchkin:
Classic too much confidence, no experience scenario. Shame really as he’s a smart lad not a clown except in this case he is !
Firstly everyone has to start from a position of no experience.The problem these days seems to be more one of ‘experience’ not being passed on at the training stage.With too much emphasis now on keeping truck driving training as close to car driving as possible.Then added to by trucks being continuously dumbed down to add to that.As opposed to simple advice from day 1 like forget everything you know about driving a car.Proper constant mesh gearboxes which virtually enforce a correct approach speed regime and use of engine braking to slow down on the approach not brakes at the last minute bearing in mind that braking into a bend can also throw a high c of g vehicle on it’s side by simple weight transfer.
In addition to the issue of driving something with a high centre of gravity in which it’s what you do with steering wheel that’s as,if not more,important than the speed.Luckily for me I learn’t ( was taught ) all that driving heavy fire trucks in which it’s possible to turn something over at a relatively lower speed than a higher one simply by using the wrong steering inputs.Training which later came in very useful as a council driver driving heavy plant and bulk refuse on a multi lift wagon with which,just like those fire trucks,every large move of the wheel was usually followed by Queen Mary type rolling in a storm force 10 to one side or the other in which case anyone who wasn’t taught how to handle that especially on the entry to roundabouts would be an accident waiting to happen.The over emphasis on speed in isolation regarding rollovers shows that new drivers don’t have much chance when it’s obviously a case of the blind leading the blind in that regard.
Wish I were bloody perfect like some who try to make out they’re a driving God
Well he’s out of a job, insurance say no apparently.
Shame as with a less serious bit of experience I’m sure he’d be an asset, hard worker that he is. All the agri boys know each other so he’ll need another door to open for him.
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I rolled a trailer on Wagon and drag few years ago.
Hadn’t been driving very long few months.
Started getting a bit to cocky with the heavy foot.
Flipped the trailer clean over and caused bit chaos that day
Had about 25 infringements on my tacho card as well.
As I didn’t quite understand it fully when started driving.
Got £200 fine for my tacho.
Got done for due care and attention and had to attend a driver Awareness course.
I learned my lesson that day big time.
Munchkin:
Well he’s out of a job, insurance say no apparently.
Shame as with a less serious bit of experience I’m sure he’d be an asset, hard worker that he is.
Or possibly another sad statistic who’s been let down by our blind leading the blind driver training regime which forgets that experience isn’t something that can be obtained from nowhere.Which sometimes needs to be passed on rather than learn’t the hard way. 
Since the driver’s seat is attached to the body and the steering column is attached to the chassis it exaggerates the lean felt by the driver, so taking one of these even this far will have you rising in the seat!
cav551:
Since the driver’s seat is attached to the body and the steering column is attached to the chassis it exaggerates the lean felt by the driver, so taking one of these even this far will have you rising in the seat!
To be fair the c of g of a double decker bus isn’t as bad as it looks compared to many types of trucks.In which case what you feel in the seat could be fine in something like that or a loaded Leyland WF tipper while the same thing would put a Clydesdale multi lift bulker among others on its side.