When tieing down equipment and hooking trailers wrong kills people

[David_Kb7uns]

We had a incident out here at the coast where someone was pulling an ATV to the dunes resulting in a severe collision. Dodge Ram pulling one of those small utility trailers with a 4 seater Polaris RZR as a load. Looks like the trailer was too small and unbalanced and maybe improper hitch height or ball size and started fishtailing and then broke loose going into oncoming traffic and collided with a Toyota Sienna where upon impact the RZR broke loose from trailer and impacted the front of the van with the side of the RZR taking out the front row seats of the van. This resulted in a double fatality. I heard this dispatched on radio and the facts were not clear exactly until the troopers got on scene.

Here is a link to one of the news stories with pictures

Terrible accident just north of Waldport Two Yachats women killed ｻ News Lincoln County

I hope that this will prompt people to take steps to inform some of these uneducated people about properly securing equipment or heavy equipment to trailers when it is observed. I have personally observed an RTV held by one 300lb rated rachet strap across the floor board.


David Kb7uns

 

[kensnelling]

When tieng things it is amazing how many people cheap out on tie downs and don't seem to understand the physics of mass/accelleration. When I worked at a motorcyle shop I saw several trailer queens that had been damaged by tie down failure. Spend 14 grand + on a bike. and tie it down with a couple of 3-400# cinch straps.

Guess I go overkill on my stuff. but I usually use 2" ratchet tie downs with a 3300# workload rating. Costs more than the 1" straps, but a more secure cargo.

Ken

 

[gwiley]

Thanks for the reminder.

 

[kevin37b]

Look at the last picture .Do you see how that strap is routed ? I'm not sure if that's before or after but that is a joke . No it should be a crime . 99% of these people do not know , and do not care . I certainly hope that wakes them up every night .

 

[Willl]

We see it here and yet nobody says anything.

Don't want to hurt anybodys feelers. Gota be PC.

 

[crazyal]

Almost every load you see on a semi is not secured in a way to prevent it from becoming unsecured in an accident. I don't even think laws are written to prevent a load from coming unsecured during an accident.

The problem with small trailers is that the coupler and safety chains are not very strong. The coupler is usually nothing more than sheet metal pressed into shape. That means that the tower needs to correctly load his/ her trailer. I'm assuming that the trailer in the second to last picture is the trailer that was being used (not the last picture). It's hard to tell how much weight it was rated for but it doesn't look like there was much room to shift the load as needed for correct weight distribution. Even if the guy used 3/8" gr 70 truckers chains to secure it the outcome wouldn't have changed. The trailer would have just flipped with the UTV.

 

[kevin37b]

I didn't notice the other trailer the first time i looked at the pics . You are correct , not enough trailer for that load . I am sure that load was negative tongue weight .

 

[mjw357]

So the ATV was on that little single-axle flatbed? I wouldn't haul my Cub Cadet lawn tractor on that. I'm not really sure what that trailer is good for, shouldn't be highway legal. Way too squirrely.

 

[aczlan]

Crazy. My family rags on me at times for going overboard with tiedowns, but I dont EVER want to have something like that happen because I didnt take the extra 5 mins needed to tie it down right.
Here is an example from when we picked up the Toro:


Aaron Z

 

[mjw357]

Crazy. My family rags on me at times for going overboard with tiedowns, but I dont EVER want to have something like that happen because I didnt take the extra 5 mins needed to tie it down right.
Here is an example from when we picked up the Toro:
Aaron Z

I think you did it just right, nothing overboard about it. What if you had just did the front most strap and the rear, and the front came loose. There would be nothing to keep that unit from rolling back and forth.