Brakes were working at 28% efficiency at the time of the crash. Disgraceful
Not much of a sentence when you divide it by the number of dead.
Earlier this week the ex TM has been granted an O licence to run out of Grittenhams/Flatlights yard. A joke, anyone involved in this case ought to be barred from holding an o licence for life.
Every mechanic/fitter should take note of this case.
I get called paranoid/jobsworth etc etc at my place because I report all defects on buses I drive.
Wasn’t it only the young lad’s 2nd day on the job or something…?
He had only passed his Class 2 the Friday before if I remember right, then had the bad luck to end up with these clowns.
The police and Cps said the faults with the brakes would have been obvious to anyone.
How can that be, before you start a shift, nobody crawls underneath any lorry to carry out a detailed and full inspection of the brakes .
Dvsa requires a driver to carry out a basic and simple walk around check .
This case took a long time to prepare the evidence ,experts used to report on the condition of the brakes, so not obvious to anyone .
Londontrucker123:
Wasn’t it only the young lad’s 2nd day on the job or something…?He had only passed his Class 2 the Friday before if I remember right, then had the bad luck to end up with these clowns.
I think we can safely say the driver is not in any way to blame for the condition of the brakes or the incident.
Sad incident all around.
Can’t understand how, in this hight tech world, that this truck was able to travel.
toby1234abc:
The police and Cps said the faults with the brakes would have been obvious to anyone.
How can that be, before you start a shift, nobody crawls underneath any lorry to carry out a detailed and full inspection of the brakes .
Dvsa requires a driver to carry out a basic and simple walk around check .
.
Correct. Thats why the driver isnt in nick too.
Some coverage of the incident on TV show today, now on BBC iplayer.
bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b … -episode-3
Usual annoying narration of many of these type shows.
njl:
Some coverage of the incident on TV show today, now on BBC iplayer.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b … -episode-3
Usual annoying narration of many of these type shows.
Agreed, a garbled inaccurate account, ie ‘loaded with 30 tons of’ etc
the article split into about 3 different segments, each requiring a ‘reminder’ of
the previous piece as if we are all idiots.
Juddian:
t had he driven old school utilising gears and engine/exhaust braking continually in order to save wear and excess heat on the brakes, so the whole system of training and ongoing lorry use is unfit in this aspect,
My thoughts exactly. In my 18 tonners I find myself using the engine break very often. Yet during my class 1/2 training the instructor said “we don’t use the motor break” so you’re not allowed to use it (I’m not sure if you can use it during the test?) Anyway, as a kid (5-6 years old) I remember I was visiting my maternal grandmother and a few blocks from her house a bus full of people was descending down a steep hill, brakes failed and it ended up inside a house across the T-junction at the end of the road. Lots of dead people and bodybags…
Ever since I’ve been terrified of something like this happening to me so I break at the start of a descent to kill the speed and to make sure my breaks still work, lol. Steep downhill road - engine break on, if still going too fast - downshift (with Engine break still on).
Bluey Circles:
Own Account Driver:
Rowley010:
Does anyone know what was actually wrong with the brakes? Articles just say they were defective? And what would a driver experienced or inexperienced have noticed on the checks that would have given them an indication of the defect?Apart from his air pressures and warnings in the cab what should he have actually seen that an experienced driver may have picked up on?
The primary thrust of the prosecution technical case was the reaction brackets on the automatic slack adjusters had snapped therefore preventing them adjusting automatically. As the brake material wears the slack adjusters adjust automatically and take up that slack to make sure the shoes remain close to the drum and also the slack adjuster remains at an angle to the brake chamber push rod that ensures maximum torque on the s cam.
That’s sort if it. However, the figures for how much out of adjustment they were weren’t really that much and not really what ought to lead to catastrophic failure.
According to eye witnesses there was smoke and a very strong smell of burnt brakes that the driver presumably missed. I would suspect that there were almost certainly signs of brake fade before he turned into the hill ie the truck seeming to roll on and coming to a ‘soft’ stop. In terms of drum brakes out of adjustment they tend to be quite ‘clunky’ and there maybe a noticeable delay between pushing the pedal and the shoes hitting the drum.
Maximum use of engine braking by running down the gears combined with use of the exhaust brake and good forward planning that avoids last minute heavy braking help prevents brakes overheating.
Was the exhaust brake working and had he been using it ?
Any truck loaded the exhaust brake aint worth a toss.
Engine brake better, intarder the best.
ETS:
Juddian:
t had he driven old school utilising gears and engine/exhaust braking continually in order to save wear and excess heat on the brakes, so the whole system of training and ongoing lorry use is unfit in this aspect,My thoughts exactly. In my 18 tonners I find myself using the engine break very often. Yet during my class 1/2 training the instructor said “we don’t use the motor break” so you’re not allowed to use it (I’m not sure if you can use it during the test?) Anyway, as a kid (5-6 years old) I remember I was visiting my maternal grandmother and a few blocks from her house a bus full of people was descending down a steep hill, brakes failed and it ended up inside a house across the T-junction at the end of the road. Lots of dead people and bodybags…
Ever since I’ve been terrified of something like this happening to me so I break at the start of a descent to kill the speed and to make sure my breaks still work, lol. Steep downhill road - engine break on, if still going too fast - downshift (with Engine break still on).
Dont forget in these days of semi auto trans if the rpms are quite high the truck will not let you change down another gear.
SuperMultiBlue:
Brakes were working at 28% efficiency at the time of the crash. Disgraceful
What figures did you expect?
Trickydick:
Any truck loaded the exhaust brake aint worth a toss.
Engine brake better, intarder the best.
Depends, on at a previous job we had ‘stronger’ ones on our Volvo’s so if you selected the highest setting before the hill it would keep you in a silly low gear max revs whilst descending. They were good enough on the 750’s that were plated for 120 tons. It saved the company money on brake pads.
Trickydick:
Bluey Circles:
Own Account Driver:
Rowley010:
Does anyone know what was actually wrong with the brakes? Articles just say they were defective? And what would a driver experienced or inexperienced have noticed on the checks that would have given them an indication of the defect?Apart from his air pressures and warnings in the cab what should he have actually seen that an experienced driver may have picked up on?
The primary thrust of the prosecution technical case was the reaction brackets on the automatic slack adjusters had snapped therefore preventing them adjusting automatically. As the brake material wears the slack adjusters adjust automatically and take up that slack to make sure the shoes remain close to the drum and also the slack adjuster remains at an angle to the brake chamber push rod that ensures maximum torque on the s cam.
That’s sort if it. However, the figures for how much out of adjustment they were weren’t really that much and not really what ought to lead to catastrophic failure.
According to eye witnesses there was smoke and a very strong smell of burnt brakes that the driver presumably missed. I would suspect that there were almost certainly signs of brake fade before he turned into the hill ie the truck seeming to roll on and coming to a ‘soft’ stop. In terms of drum brakes out of adjustment they tend to be quite ‘clunky’ and there maybe a noticeable delay between pushing the pedal and the shoes hitting the drum.
Maximum use of engine braking by running down the gears combined with use of the exhaust brake and good forward planning that avoids last minute heavy braking help prevents brakes overheating.
Was the exhaust brake working and had he been using it ?
Any truck loaded the exhaust brake aint worth a toss.
Engine brake better, intarder the best.
Even in the early 70s i could bring a Scania 110 at 32 ton down into Ashbourne and through the market place almost solely on the exhaust brake, slow,yes, but also safe.
mrginge:
Trickydick:
Any truck loaded the exhaust brake aint worth a toss.
Engine brake better, intarder the best.Depends, on at a previous job we had ‘stronger’ ones on our Volvo’s so if you selected the highest setting before the hill it would keep you in a silly low gear max revs whilst descending. They were good enough on the 750’s that were plated for 120 tons. It saved the company money on brake pads.
If its got settings its most likely an intarder especially if heavy haul.