Bristol Tipper Crash

[bednobs]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38404875
saw this on the news earlier and just felt hugely sorry for the driver.
do you think there will be prison sentences attached to the guilty verdicts?

[Cloverjo]

I feel sorry for the lad who was driving. The owner was a complete wrong'un and should go to jail.
I feel for the poor girl who was killed and her family.

[TWR]

Bhj, long gone have the days of HGV Vacum brakes, these were a system of air / fluid assisted brakes, at that times HGVs did not pull the weights theses trucks have today that includes 8 Wheel tippers, no matter where a HGV is, if that truck has a Air Loss by a leak, that truck will come to a stop and the driver can do nothing about it, that's safety in the making, a lot of people think a HGV will stop dead, it will not, if it's empty it will skid due to the efficiency of the AIr Brakes, Loaded well that's another thing depending what sort of HGV you are driving, a Tanker can "Push you" although there are baffles within the tank they can still push ( the fluid splashes about) they have forward baffles to stop the fluid going forward & Side baffles for corners etc, to cars as you mention, older cars, as you said had drum brake & if there was a leak within the four drums you would run out of brakes, now they have duel, if there's a leak on the back it would not affect the braking & Vice versa, the rear brakes come on secondary, regards hill decent's, you have to be on the ball, before any steep decent you have a warning, Ignore these you pay the price, you mention Sawley so you must know the area, prior to Sawley there is no hills that could affect youtr braking, but talk about Waddington Fell that's another danger area as a few have found out, there's been a safety slip road there for HGV's to run into should they have brake fade, the village of Waddington has had a few "Run Aways" in my time in this area all due to continuous braking. I always drove with one thing in mind "What If"

[mushroom25]

PP:- //I cant imagine more than 6 years.//

sort of similar sort of case
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4816206.stm
in which 9 years was handed down.

[TWR]

Mush, I think as you have pointed out, this is an Entirely different case, one been on a Railway Line the other been on a B Road into Bath,I think the sentence will be very difference.

[mushroom25]

forget the location TWR, both involved manslaughter by gross negligence, and both involved 4 deaths and other serious injuries. outcome likely to be similar

[sddsddean]

Bhg - I think twr has addressed most of the points on why I test the brakes after leaving the yard, but also on mine you have to be doing 10mph+ for the ABS to set (and I haven't got room to do that in the yard) and I've got no load sensing valve on my truck (wish I had!) and all the brake settings are done electronically. A guy at DAF technical explained that the brake air pressure settings wouldn't be correct until after the 3rd time the brakes had been applied and the 'computer' had worked out how much air pressure was needed to work the brakes! Thats why I'd rather have a good old mechanical load sensing valve...its basic, but it works!!
I meant to say before that I think it is wrong that the age for driving an LGV has been reduced under the young driver scheme. If you are not allowed to supervise a car 'L' driver until you have had 3 years experience as a full licence holder (so you are a minimum of 20), how can you hold an LGV/PCV licence under 21? Just seems wrong to me. I know there is a shortage of LGV drivers, but this is not the way to address it.

[bhg481]

sddsddean - yes, I admit I know nothing about lorry braking systems; I assumed they were simply scaled-up versions of cars which, clearly , is not true. Apologies if anything I wrote offended you - I was trying to point out to all drivers that it's important to test their brakes as soon as possible each time they drive their vehicle.

[sddsddean]

No problem...no offence taken. Unfortunately, most car drivers assume they can just pull out in front of a loaded truck and we can stop on a sixpence...which is not the case! Have a look at what happened to me a couple of months ago. The guy was very lucky no one was coming the other way, or I would have flattened him!

[ummmm]

Jeez...scary.