the incident at indy

P

pickup

Guest
I'd like to know the whole story. Maybe someone can post further details.

Certainly the incident should be reported to the appropriate agencies, investigations done, and lessons should be learned.

But I'm not sure it was handled incorrectly by the employees.

First, I doubt it's even possible for a pup to tip over. It's not far off the ground to begin with, and the rear wheels tend to keep it from tipping. If it didn't tip during the first few minutes due to top-heavy shifting contents, then it isn't going to tip. [Here on the package side of UPS, we had pups with hydrolic legs ("landing gear") that allowed us to pump up the front of the trailer several feet higher than normal. Sometimes one leg would give out, and the trailer would tilt severly, but I never had one actually tip over. Usually I'd just bang on the other leg, or angle the Leveling Valve to drain the fluid out of the leg, until it lowered the trailer to the normal level position.]

Second, the incident was bad, but the trailer had to be returned to the level position sooner or later. I say, the sooner the better, especially if hazmats are possibly leaking. Especially since you have experienced people and the right equiptment on hand. An outside contractor would probably just do the same thing as the workers on hand did. [By the way, did any employees refuse a request/order to participate?]

Finally, the second Steward and six dockworkers driving the forklifts probably were trying to help out the first yard jockey by minimizing the severity of the incident. The sooner the trailer is returned to level, the sooner people can get inside and go to work dealing with whatever hazmat danger there is. No need to make the problem any bigger than it already was.


I can totally understand the above viewpoint but I can also see the other point of view. What about the poison, there were drums leaking, which ones? What was the poison? Did the people working around the trailer even know about the hazardous materials.? And let me give you a hypothetical situation, suppose this trailer contained poisonous gas compressed in canisters? Upon hitting the ground, the valves loosen and the gas is visibly leaking? Does somebody hop in there and close the valve to minimize the damage or does everyone get as far away from there and wait for the hazmat team to show up? Okay, in this case the poison was liquid and whether or not it was leaking, if there is any leakage , you have to assume it is the poison. Liquid can turn to vapor and be breathed in. So, I am glad nobody got hurt, but it could have gone wrong. If everyone moved away from the scene and waited for a more costly response to this problem, definitely nobody would have got hurt but it would have disrupted operations, and would have been costly.

And again , depends on the poison, some stuff is marginally poisonous. Did you know concentrated mustard(the kind that goes on a hot dog) is poisonous and must be labeled as such if in a 55 gallon drum for transport. If a drum like that were leaking, big deal. but other stuff, different story. There should be procedures in place and known by all before such an incident happens.
 

City Driver

Well-Known Member
what it all comes down to is that nobody here saw how bad this trailer was leanin, and the scared look on the dockworkers faces after they came in and told everybody else about it

that trailer was ready to tip rather Mr Physics wants to believe it or not
 

tieguy

Banned
what it all comes down to is that nobody here saw how bad this trailer was leanin, and the scared look on the dockworkers faces after they came in and told everybody else about it

that trailer was ready to tip rather Mr Physics wants to believe it or not

Jon does make a good point if the trailer sat there in such a fashion for twenty minutes then saying it was ready to tip over may be a stretch.

If the landing gear was faulty who was responsible for pre-tripping it prior to the trailer being loaded?
 

City Driver

Well-Known Member
the landing gear broke under the weight of it being dropped when it fell of the yard tractor...and it dropped at an angle (she was making her cut) which caused the landing gear to buckle down and sideways

hard to explain really

yea maybe the trailer wasnt gonna tip but it still could of

theres a reason the manager ordered the yard jockeys to put another trailer there to stop this one from falling...its not like i was the one and only person who thought this trailer could fall, everybody did

and when the terminal manager and new asistant terminal manager found out about this they FLIPPED
 

drewed

Shankman
Im not understanding the logic of putting the other trailer next to it, if the weight would have tipped one it more then likely would have tipped the second as well.
 

tieguy

Banned
Im not understanding the logic of putting the other trailer next to it, if the weight would have tipped one it more then likely would have tipped the second as well.

or just pushed it to the side.

Its odd that a dropped trailer would mess up one side of the landing gear and not both.

So whats the procedure for responding to a large haz mat spill at your facility. what did they end up doing with the trailer.
 
or just pushed it to the side.

Its odd that a dropped trailer would mess up one side of the landing gear and not both.

So whats the procedure for responding to a large haz mat spill at your facility. what did they end up doing with the trailer.

The shifter was turning went it fell. As the trailer comes off the fifth wheel the shifter is pulling out from the side rather than the front and it transfers the weight and down it goes.
I would have backed a trailer up to the middle of the tilting trailer. I would leave room at the front and rear to come in from the side with forklifts.
 

City Driver

Well-Known Member
I would have backed a trailer up to the middle of the tilting trailer. I would leave room at the front and rear to come in from the side with forklifts.

they probably would of done that if there was space, but there was no space to do that at all our yard is very tight
 
TO all the doubters, just because something isn't likely to happen (such as a tilting trailer falling over), there is no guarantee that it won't happen.
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
Some of you just don't get it.

Think of all the money and bad publicity we saved by not reporting this and having our own people fix it.

If not handled in this manner, it could have resulted in a drop of stock price.

GET THE BIG PICTURE









hahahaha, THAT should get some people goin'.....
 
Some of you just don't get it.

Think of all the money and bad publicity we saved by not reporting this and having our own people fix it.

If not handled in this manner, it could have resulted in a drop of stock price.

GET THE BIG PICTURE
You're 100% Over...so what if someone gets poisoned? There are people in line waiting to fill that job.








hahahaha, THAT should get some people goin'.....
 

tieguy

Banned
The shifter was turning went it fell. As the trailer comes off the fifth wheel the shifter is pulling out from the side rather than the front and it transfers the weight and down it goes.
I would have backed a trailer up to the middle of the tilting trailer. I would leave room at the front and rear to come in from the side with forklifts.

cach I've seen a few false couplings get dropped in the yard. Anything is possible but from what I saw the trailer still comes down on both legs at about the same time. From what I have seen you would have to be tilting on a hill to have all the wieght land heavy to one side. jmho
 
cach I've seen a few false couplings get dropped in the yard. Anything is possible but from what I saw the trailer still comes down on both legs at about the same time. From what I have seen you would have to be tilting on a hill to have all the wieght land heavy to one side. jmho

With the fifth wheel all or most of the way up and the shifter turning sharp it will transfer the weight balance sideways instead of front to rear. If it comes off the trailer will tilt hard and its easy at that height to collapse the leg. We have never done a pup but a shifter at SF next door did once with one of ours. one of ours guys did dump at martrac one time some years back.
 
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