Accidents Happen

The rear trailer of a Yellow Freight tandem "fell" off and rolled over.  While it failed to cause a major highway interruption, since it was Saturday, the outcome could have been much worse.

In any aspect of transportation, accidents happen.  Most of those are preventable, and this one surely was.  Over the course of my career in operations, risk and compliance management, as well as consulting, I have seen many accidents that have resulted from unintended uncoupling, some have resulted in cargo and trailer damage, others in loss of life.

 

Yes drivers operate in a stressful environment, as do many of us.  Driver recruitment, training and retention programs are supposed to ensure that drivers are trained to perform pre-trip inspections.  Good safety and compliance programs constantly emphasize the need to check that king pins are properly set in the fifth wheel and that the locking pin is locked.  Whenever a driver stops at a rest area, lunch stop or drop and hooks it is his responsibility to ensure that the vehicle he is operating is in fact safe to move. 

 

Above all drivers need to have situational awareness.  If you are hauling two trailers that awareness is even more critical.  The situation begs the question how did the driver not notice that his trailer was missing, since his air brake warnings should have gone off? 

 

This driver, and his supervisors need to revisit the basic premise that operating a commercial motor vehicle is a professional responsibility, that it has safety - life and death - implications. 

 

A complete review of safety and operations training is required.

 

This author consults with leading institutions through GLG