Another driver lost

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
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rPolice investigate lorry death
By David Millward
January 18, 2012

Investigations are continuing after a lorry driver died after being run over by his own trailer outside Reading railway station.

The 69-year-old was on the service road behind the Apex Plaza building, just before midnight on Sunday, when the accident happened.

Lorry driver killed in incident outside station

Police believe the man, from Redhill, Surrey, was coupling his tractor unit to a trailer.

An inspector from the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) is looking into the incident as the driver was working for a Network Rail contractor on a site which gives access to railway land.

The man was an employee of Croydon-based Tone Scaffolding, a sub-contractor for Costain which is working for Network Rail on the £850 million redevelopment of Reading station and the surrounding rail network.

Sergeant Jim Upton, of the road death investigation team at Three Mile Cross, said: “Our investigation is at an early stage and we have yet to establish the full circumstances.

“However, we believe the lorry rolled forward while the driver was coupling the trailer to the tractor unit and that he was struck by his lorry as he attempted to get back into the cab.

“The driver was taken to Royal Berkshire Hospital, but sadly died.”

Julian Burnell, communications manager for Network Rail, said construction workers and British Transport Police alerted emergency services.

He said: “As Thames Valley Police have designated the incident as a road traffic accident we have no direct jurisdiction, but we are co-operating with the relevant agencies.”

Mr Burnell added: “One individual was fatally injured in the incident and we would express our sincere sympathy to his relatives.”

A spokesperson for ORR said an inspector was working with the police, Network Rail and contractors to ascertain the causes of the incident.

Sarah Welsby, from Tone Scaffolding, said on Monday: “Our sympathies are with the family, who we have been out to see today.”

Fron the Reading Post today

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Very sad news.

But three times I’ve seen this happen, the driver puts red suzie on, tractor and trailer start rolling and rather than just pull the red suzie off again, driver jumps off the catwalk and tries to get into the cab to put parkbrake on.

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My sympathies go to his family and friends.

I’m sure that what appears to have been a simple mistake on his behalf, is something that most artic drivers have done at least once, I know I have. Take care Guys.

But three times I’ve seen this happen, the driver puts red suzie on, tractor and trailer start rolling and rather than just pull the red suzie off again, driver jumps off the catwalk and tries to get into the cab to put parkbrake on.

Yep, a mate off mine told me that he’d done that, as he was telling me about the fence, or ex fence in the yard. It made my blood run cold, I said to him about the red line, he reckoned that in his panic it didnt occur to him, luckly he got away with it. :open_mouth:

But dont that red line take some getting off when your moving :open_mouth:

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Its about time some safety aspect was fitted into the handbrake system and emergency line by manufacturers, if the hand brake isn’t on then the line cannot be disconnected from its stowage position without an alarm, flashing rear cab light or both and the unit cannot be driven solo without the line being in the stowage position. A simple switch system can be fitted without too much extra cost or difficulty. As has been said many drivers have probably done it and been lucky why not eliminate the hazard from the beginning, it could save more lives. At his age this is no way to end your life. Franky.

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Every time I hook up the red line, I’m hanging on to it to pull it off again if things start to move…
I had a load of steel shift back on it’s suspension a couple of weeks ago - the red line was disconnected before I worked out what had happened :blush: Glad no-one was there to see it :wink:
RIP, and there but for the Grace of God…

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I have investigated 5 runaways where i currently work but thankfully only ever damage and nobody hurt. Each case was handbrake left off, red line connected and away it went. All 5 cases the driver jumped off and ran after it.

All tractor units at this particular company now have a sophisticated handbrake warning device fitted before they go into service. If the handbrake is off and either door opened - ignition on or off, air up or down - a very loud voice sounds “WARNING HANDBRAKE NOT APPLIED”.

The ONLY way to shut it up is apply the handbrake. Shutting the door won’t shut it up. (apparently very annoying if you don’t shut the door properly and set off!). These are above and beyond any warning fitted by the manufacturer.

Problem is that there is no legislation regarding this and it really is a relatively simple problem to solve with todays technology.

I really feel for the driver and his family. he was just doing his job and probably forgot one simple thing. it is just so easy to do and as already said, so many have done it and got away with their lives.

And how many times have these incidents happened when a driver has been on his own? Coupling up in some lonely yard somewhere, in the rain and the dark - then getting trapped under a rolling vehicle with no help around.

I’m currently on a health & safety course and brought this subject up. the trainer from AVIVA couldn’t understand how a driver can leave his handbrake off until I explained how the braking system works then he got it. We got the class to do a risk assessment - came out high priority for measures to be taken - what a surprise.

I would expect the company he worked for will be prosecuted. My company was after one of the runaways - they were accused of not training the drivers to apply handbrakes … and i thought the DSA tested them on that !! :open_mouth:

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Thing is though, if someone was to come up with one of these, you gotta get through scania, volvo, mercedes blah blah to get it stuck on.

Personally, having studied electronics at college when I was younger know exactly what would do the trick, but hey.

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shep532:
I have investigated 5 runaways where i currently work but thankfully only ever damage and nobody hurt. Each case was handbrake left off, red line connected and away it went. All 5 cases the driver jumped off and ran after it.

All tractor units at this particular company now have a sophisticated handbrake warning device fitted before they go into service. If the handbrake is off and either door opened - ignition on or off, air up or down - a very loud voice sounds “WARNING HANDBRAKE NOT APPLIED”.

The ONLY way to shut it up is apply the handbrake. Shutting the door won’t shut it up. (apparently very annoying if you don’t shut the door properly and set off!). These are above and beyond any warning fitted by the manufacturer.

Problem is that there is no legislation regarding this and it really is a relatively simple problem to solve with todays technology.

I really feel for the driver and his family. he was just doing his job and probably forgot one simple thing. it is just so easy to do and as already said, so many have done it and got away with their lives.

And how many times have these incidents happened when a driver has been on his own? Coupling up in some lonely yard somewhere, in the rain and the dark - then getting trapped under a rolling vehicle with no help around.

I’m currently on a health & safety course and brought this subject up. the trainer from AVIVA couldn’t understand how a driver can leave his handbrake off until I explained how the braking system works then he got it. We got the class to do a risk assessment - came out high priority for measures to be taken - what a surprise.

I would expect the company he worked for will be prosecuted. My company was after one of the runaways - they were accused of not training the drivers to apply handbrakes … and i thought the DSA tested them on that !! :open_mouth:

9/10 trucks have these fitted - mainly dafs. But scanias ‘whistle’ and volvos do ■■■■ all once the ignition is off.

But the problem we have is when the driver is on the cat walk, he cannot physically remove the red line from its stowage point.

So for talking sake, on some trucks, there is the option to ‘couple’ the red line to the male lump of mental on the frame on the back of the cab. Solution? Magnetise this when the handbrake is off therefore it cannot be removed until the magnetism is removed.

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Happened to me once, My unit came very close to hitting another cab with a driver in it reading his paper,lol It didn’t occur to me to disconnect the red line, i jumped out, ran along side it, opened the drivers door,reached in and pressed the foot brake with my hand to stop it , with about 3 ft to spare between the 2 trucks,I soon got into the habit of using the parking brake ,Apart from the fact that i forgot to apply the parking brake,it think that this will be more incline to happen at RDC’s that the run up to the bay’s is on an upward slope, particularly if the driver has grown used to coupling/uncoupling at an RDC where the surface slopes toward the bays

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rip driver

New to coupling as so far hadnt to do it apart from once a few weeks ago when i asked a driver to show me how to do it.
But is it what happens that you park up dont put on handbrake on tractor unit and get out put brake on trailer and then go to uncouple (the trailer brake holds the unit) and when u pull the red suzy the tractor unit starts to roll away.
Is this what happens or am i totally wrong

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Happened only a couple of times to me, forgetting the handbrake, but lucky the trailer brake was on. Everyone makes mistakes, a moments distraction such as a phone call or another driver talking to you while hooking up. I check and use trailer brake more nowadays.

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Happened to me one night. While de coupling on a changeover a security guy came up and asked if I could pull the trailer forward as it was too far back and blocking his camera view! I reluctantly got out and started to reconect the lines,while I was busy he pushed one of the trailer buttons, still dont know which and as I connected the line the whole rig moved back, for some unknown reason my instinct was to disconnect the line again and the whole thing stopped rolling, I had always been paranoid about the parking brake being on and am always double checking by opening the cab door and craning my neck around the seat to check its on. Needless to say I always double check now, as its one of those panick evoking situations that you never forget.

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It was better when cabs still had rear windows, could see the handbrake.

For now though, how hard would it be for trailer brakes to be on the front, and a handbrake light to be on the rear of the cab?

Simple measures, lots of lives saved.

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Guess we have all done it at some time.
I coupled up plugged in the airlines, everything started to roll back. not thinking right I jumped off only to end up suspended by my jacket caught on air intake stack. Managed to wriggle out of jacket and jump in cab and apply BRAKE, only ever did it once…
Only damage - pulled muscle in shoulder- could have been lots worse.
Sympathy to driver and family :cry: :cry: :cry:

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simple solution. trailer brake on the front of the trailer.
why don’t they do this?

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The “HANDBRAKE NOT APPLIED” audible warning device should be a legal requirement on all new vehicles.
This type of tragic accident happens so often and still nothing gets done to prevent it.

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A lot of companies are fitting a device called a Pownall valve that automatically applies the park brake when you disconnect the red air line so that when re-coupling you have to release the park brake manually

A life saver !

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mike68:
The “HANDBRAKE NOT APPLIED” audible warning device should be a legal requirement on all new vehicles.
This type of tragic accident happens so often and still nothing gets done to prevent it.

It should also be a different warning.

On the DAF, you get the same warning if you’ve left your lights on, or it thinks you’ve left it in gear rather than neutral (takes ages to realise it IS in neutral) as if you’ve left the handbrake off.
So you ingore the warnings, making them pointless.

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think a simple interlock between the handbrake and cab door would be enough.
No handbrake applied, no opening door.

sympathy to the guys relatives

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why is forgetting to apply the handbrake a common thing in this situation? You don’t forget when you normally park so why when you couple?