Landrover towing Austin A30 on trailer accident this morning on M5

[minimutly]

Until a few more details emerge, this thread is just mostly full of speculation.

The landy might be aimed at the central reservation, but will not hit it from the near side lane in anywhere near 0.4s. 60mph is 27m/s. 0.4s would be 11m. Straight across, yes, but not when having to change direction, I would think.

Trailer does not appear to have turned over. It should have applied its brakes on becoming detached from the towing vehicle. The load should be secured adequately - I would expect the load to tip over the trailer rather than come adrift. I’ll wait to see some more details, if the truth is ever realised. We might know what should not have happened, but not what did occur, or why.

Yes, experts talking ********, like being down the pub with a bunch of boring old farts....

 

[Nick DV]

Yes, experts talking ********, like being down the pub with a bunch of boring old farts....

Fancy calling us old farts "boring"!

 

[minimutly]

Fancy calling us old farts "boring"!

Three pages? Really...

 

[James1979]

Three pages? Really...

You started the third page

 

[nickk]

First vehicle I ever damaged a35 van ,sitting in it 6 years old,let the handbrake of.....smashed the new reversing light off,was my sisters friends,dad pacing up and down quoting “that cost her £6!

 

[Beanwood]

The landy might be aimed at the central reservation, but will not hit it from the near side lane in anywhere near 0.4s. 60mph is 27m/s. 0.4s would be 11m. Straight across, yes, but not when having to change direction, I would think.

Hmm... how to put this gently - oh hang on - I've got it.... YOU'RE WRONG. have you ever SEEN an accident like this happening? It's VERY frickin quick.

True - the impact may not have been at 90 degrees - but it was pretty damn close. I ESTIMATED 0.4s, hell call it .6s - your reaction time would not cope with it. Maybe the Landy was doing 70? or 50? I don't know - but it's all very flippin quick when it happens - anyone saying different is talking out of their rear end!!

My point was - there's a lot of surmising going on without the facts, and maybe we ought to give the driver the beneift of the doubt - remember that whole 'innocent until proven guilty' thing?

 

[not done it yet]

My point was - there's a lot of surmising going on without the facts, and maybe we ought to give the driver the beneift of the doubt - remember that whole 'innocent until proven guilty' thing?

That is what I said. Just about everything posted was simply a guess - some exaggerated, like yours. Get over it and stop assuming the worst for special effect. I would not be surprised if the predicament developed quite slowly, but I’m not guessing.

 

[stuvy]

Either way Iv told you what my mate said had happened but like the idiots at work that are blinded by there own brilliance you know the answers

 

[stuvy]

Looks to be sat pretty level to me and you can see the right front wheel, which doesn't look flat.

My point was - there's a lot of surmising going on without the facts, and maybe we ought to give the driver the beneift of the doubt - remember that whole 'innocent until proven guilty' thing?

That is what I said. Just about everything posted was simply a guess - some exaggerated, like yours. Get over it and stop assuming the worst for special effect. I would not be surprised if the predicament developed quite slowly, but I’m not guessing.

Refer to my post about my mate that knows the driver and owner of both vehicles

 

[pressbrake1]

My point was - there's a lot of surmising going on without the facts, and maybe we ought to give the driver the beneift of the doubt - remember that whole 'innocent until proven guilty' thing?

That is what I said. Just about everything posted was simply a guess - some exaggerated, like yours. Get over it and stop assuming the worst for special effect. I would not be surprised if the predicament developed quite slowly, but I’m not guessing.

Trailer mishaps can develop slowly but can end very quickly, definitely beyond mr averages ability to rectify

 

[mtt.tr]

Did I fk!!

Unlit section of motorway in the pitch black without a hard shoulder. No chance.

I did consider it but the main factor was that by then I was a few (at least) hundred metres past by the time I’d had the thought which made the whole thing even worse as I’d have had to walk back. There were lights behind some of whom stopped.

I didn’t call it in once I saw others had stopped as there’s nothing worse than someone calling up emergency services with absolutely no information to give. They prefer someone on scene.

I’ve stopped countless times to assist in other situations but fast roads is one you really need to be careful of as you’ll easily end up making things a lot worse.

First rule of any emergency intervention, don't add your self to the emergency

 

[mtt.tr]

Trailer mishaps can develop slowly but can end very quickly, definitely beyond mr averages ability to rectify

If you consider the amount if jockey wheels dragging along the floor it's no surprise can't get the basics right, unless they think towing trailers should sound like that

 

[knighty]

I had a blow out in a mk3 transit van front right tyre years ago, 90mph in outside lane of motorway.... the bang and van dropping made me fill my pants a bit but after than it was no problem

I appreciated people can be unlucky.... but a half decent driver should be able to handle it

 

[not done it yet]

I had a blow out in a mk3 transit van front right tyre years ago, 90mph in outside lane of motorway.... the bang and van dropping made me fill my pants a bit but after than it was no problem

I appreciated people can be unlucky.... but a half decent driver should be able to handle it

Quite likely the tyres were not even rated for that excessive speed?

 

[dobbslc]

If it had been the rear it would probably be a different story!

 

[awemawson]

Only ever had one fishtailing incident and that was caused by underinflated tyres on the twin-axle plant trailer. I got into a weave after crowning a hill on the A2 and found that I could not slow down without it getting worse. It was the longest down-hill of my life, keeping the tiniest bit of power on to stop it increasing the weave until the slope flattened out. This must have been in the mid-90's and I've never hooked up a trailer since without checking all of the tyres first.

Pete that EXACTLY mirrors my experience towing my Agreko 100 kva genny back from Felixtowe ssome years ago. Bought used, I'd kicked the tyres (4 off) but had no pressure gauge and foolishly believed the chap that they were fine. Only way out of that snaking is to accelerate - never again thank you.

 

[Kayos]

I live near the A63, only ever seen crashed on the straight bits, never the bends

The mind boggles

 

[Bullet2012]

Only way out of that snaking is to accelerate

or Not.
if you get into the situation where a trailer starts to snake, ease off the accelerator and slow down.
Never increase speed.

 

[sako243]

or Not.
if you get into the situation where a trailer starts to snake, ease off the accelerator and slow down.
Never increase speed.

Is that comment through experience of just reading paraphernalia and guidelines?

I can hand on heart say that accelerating out of trailers snaking has been the solution for me far more often than not. The only times slowing down has helped is if you're getting up to speed and it starts weaving then backing off sometimes helps. If the weave starts suddenly (such as a bad bit of road or a big vehicle blasting past) then accelerating I've found to be best.

Had a situation down the M4 where the ruts were perfect width for the trailer to just catch the edges of them, due to heavy traffic I couldn't straddle the ruts. Going downhill just after Reading a nice weave started going on, backing off and slowing down made it (almost) catastrophically worse (several times). Thankfully had a big V8 in the tow vehicle so accelerated hard, stopped the weave straight away and then I could slow back down to a sensible speed once it had stopped weaving.

Pulled over at the next opportunity and moved the vehicle I was towing another inch forward. Made all the difference. It already had a substantial nose weight but that made a hell of a difference. Luckily the Range Rover is rated to a very high nose weight compared to other vehicles. Not sure I'd have liked that journey in any other tow vehicle.

 

[Bullet2012]

^^ experience, lots of it. I move fairly large things on trailers several times per week.