Watched another trailer come loose!!

[kebo]

This is the second time I've seen this happen in person, but at two different locations. My parents live at an intersection and just before I left their house Saturday to head to my house, another truck pulling a small trailer had just turned out of one of the smaller side streets. He was headed my same direction, so I fell in behind him and we both began accelerating, only I noticed that his trailer appeared that it wasn't keeping up the truck pulling it. After a short distance, the trailer began veering to the right hand shoulder, while the truck continued on. Shortly it ran off the shoulder and down onto the bank off to the side of the road. It took a short while longer for the driver to figure out that his trailer was no longer attached to his truck!!

In the pic, you can see the trailer just in front of the sign for the highway number, and the owner in the Dodge pickup after he had turned around and was coming back to retrieve it. He was lucky, it could have turned out a lot worse!

 

[terryknight]

safety chains?? nah i'll be find (facepalm)

 

[Diamondpilot]

Wow. I wonder if the trucks hitch failed? If so safety chains are worthless. Seen it before.

Chris

 

[JimRB]

I saw a hitch in the middle of the road yesterday. I have plenty of hitches and the traffic is a bit heavy so there was no need to stop and pick it up. Especially when scrap steel is $5 a hundred right now. Pinned hitch is a good thing along with safety chains.

 

[dodge man]

Trailer look empty, I doubt the hitch failed. Probably wrong sizes ball or wasn't latched well with a pin.

 

[kebo]

When they stopped, there were three people that got out of the truck, and most of them looked pretty young. That should be your explanation right there? My guess is the hitch was never latched, and the chains (if it even had any) were never hooked up.

 

[davesl708]

It appears they do not know which side of the road to drive on either.
Probably forgot to set the latch.

 

[Stimw]

A year ago or so out on the state road (4 lane) a kid was towing a trailer with a pallet of sod on the rear.
There was a dip in the road and when he hit it the trailer came off.
It went up on the sidewalk and killed a woman jogging! Talk about wrong place, wrong time.
I heard a safety bulletin on the radio that in Florida it is 2 points on your licence for not having safety chains hooked up.

 

[RandyT]

Whats even better or worse, is in IL the trailer is insured when attached to the tow vehicle. If the trailer comes loose, or the hitch breaks, and you don't have liability insurance on the trailer, you have no insurance. So any damage will come out of your pocket.

Most people don't know that the insurance companies don't pay for loose trailer.

 

[LD1]

I am guessing nothing failed other than the human that hooked it up.

Looks like an empty little landscape trailer that may weight 800lbs? Hard to believe there was a mechanical failure anywhere.

Wrong size ball? Forgot to latch? Most likely two IMO