Roundabouts & Semi-Trailer- Any rules?

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Originally Posted by johntins

Dunno how you feel about it ( yes, I've read enough of your posts to know that I do know, you are more of a Pro than me ), but I don't want to go home knowing that I've killed someone else, my fault or not. Once is too many.

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You do know how I feel... The same...

I don't carry things I see like that, too well...

I don't go near accidents and I don't want to see any more people deceased, even if they are in the wrong... I try not to presume who is at fault when a life is lost, as everyone involved will never forget...

The last accident I had to stop at, was when a young lad died up between Goomalling and Dowerin... He was told to sit down and put his seatbelt back on... That was the last thing his father got to say to him... His Dad caught the edge of the road, hit tree on other side then bounced off and hit the next tree...
I was told it was a forester they where driving... The roof was peeled back to the rear pillar, the front bumper was back to the firewall, passengers door gone, wife thrown out, baby in bassenett thrown clear and father nearly dead, sister also badly hurt...

First on the scene was the girlfriend of my boss's best friend, she had nursing skills... She had the baby with her and was trying calm the mother who was in shock...

We arrived 5 minutes after it happened, 2 roadtrains, no chance of turning around, and to top it all off, the other truck driver was first on the scene(with his girlfriend) of a fatal only 6 months before(they tried to save the person but he died while they where waiting for ambo)...
And to add to that, his girlfriend was right in front of us, we all had left town at the same time, we where heading home at the end of a long week...4 hours we had to wait, my boss was going to organise for his Dad and him to come down to get all of us away from the accident...
I occasionally get the odd nightmare about it, and I know the other guy did for a while too...

So I would prefer everyone to get home and no one died from any accident...

Sadly, it is a statistic that will always be, humans are fallable and every thing we make, carries our faults, thus the statistics will never go away...

Always keep safe Johntins and everyone else... Never say Goodbye just "See ya later" as that is what should be!

After that sad post, I must say, not a Pro, I never ever got paid that well... It would have been nice but I couldn't imagine restaurants each night and different motels... nah!

Just a lot of experience that anyone who spent the time working gets...

I probably had some of the best teachers, all the other truck operators that knew my family... I was probably in the last old school apprentices running North in WA...Thats about the best way to describe the way things went back then... Would stop around sunset(oversize or not) and get a fire going for dinner... Road kill casseroles, bacon an egg breakies, roo stews, fried goanna(four legs mate, better than chooks) and if Mum was there, she would do a bunny casserole... At 25 I got kicked up the backside by another trucky for not holding the cheater bar safely... Had to show respect, he was a little over 70 yo... Still, he booted me pretty hard..

Most of the roads up north still hard dirt and the bitumen parts where only 10 ft wide, so some one either gave way or you shouldered as hard as you could for as much of the bitumen as you could keep... I preffered to pull over and leave them the road(that was drummed into me, called manners)... Some on here probably know where Telfer is, those that don't its east/south east of Marble bar, thats a road that makes you or breaks you...

It is that rough, I seen a triple side tippers going past, last one had quit and laid down on the job, he towed it for about 40 k's upside down... I didnt stop laughing for about 4 hours, god I was sore... The trailer flipped while crossing the Oakover river(the ore pile gave it away, plus the smoothed road for 50 k's)...Lost trailers was another thing, driver thought the truck was running well... Yeh right, 2 trailers missing out of 3, some thing not right...

Jumps Hearn left a trailer about 30k out of Menzies, was so ****ed, he drove all the way to Wiluna, hopped out, went to Pub and got another carton... I pulled an hour later, asked him where his dog trailer was, he walked to back of the lead and then had the gall to ask me to go find it... I had a great sleep, he didnt get back til early morning... He got upset when I fired up and said "I'm going now, so get going ahead"... He was my boss for that trip and after we got to Morning star mine, near Cobra station(thats between Gascoyne Junction and Mount Augustas) and unloaded, he took off to Gascoyne junction.. He was found at the pub there, 2 weeks later when his wife went looking for him.. He couldnt leave the bar, its all that was holding him up...

Mate, I miss the anticts from years go... Like the day a roadtrain crossed the Fortescue bridge and a HQ holden crossed at the same time in the opposite direction... Who said it was a single lane bridge... Truck driver was an amateur customiser, he did a chop side to the HQ, well just narrowed it a bit....

Or Kiwi Rosco trying to move the Carrabin railway bridge, using an Excavator(Cat 245), while travelling down the road at 80 kmh... HE got fined, lost his job and lost his license all in one go... 6 months later he got his job back and his license, but his truck had a big sticker across top of windscreen, it read something like, "check for bridges"...

In 1963 I was working near Normanton, and we had a dozer come up from birdsville. He left there with a Jeep on an A-frame behind the dozer, which was on a 6x6 flatbed (fairly small dozer, can't remember what size). He arrived without his Jeep - he stopped for a break and on checking his Jeep, found it was "worn down to the door handles", having apparently got a flat tyre and gone on from there, leaving a trail of bits over a couplle of hundred miles.

Nothing ruins a good night's sleep more than being held up at an accident scene for hours, then watching the rescue chopper fly out empty.

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

In 1963 I was working near Normanton, and we had a dozer come up from birdsville. He left there with a Jeep on an A-frame behind the dozer, which was on a 6x6 flatbed (fairly small dozer, can't remember what size). He arrived without his Jeep - he stopped for a break and on checking his Jeep, found it was "worn down to the door handles", having apparently got a flat tyre and gone on from there, leaving a trail of bits over a couplle of hundred miles.

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That must be where they got the term JeepKnee... only a short fella...

There some funny things that happen... when a stuff up happens, it can be enjoyable even if its your own....Costly, but enjoyable.

But I do have to dobb myself in here...

Was going down a road somewhere between Albany highway and Jandakot...

Travelled through about a month before, it was a straight run.. When I got into Perth in the early hours before sun up, its thick fog and some buggers had put round abouts in, well I went straight through 2 of them, by the time I seen them it was too late, no signs of warning, just a concrete kerb and a sandy centre...

Spoke to another cocky that came in before me and he said he did the same... on the way out, i noticed that the concrete had a lot of vehicle marks through them... The concrete had been laid the night before and tyre marks from trucks and cars straight across in both directions...

Of course I felt like a right goose but hey at least i left my mark like everyone else...

When I was being taught how to drive buses the WA way they told us always to straddle the lanes at intersections where necessary when turning. That and indicate intentions of course, but that didn't stop idiots from squeezing up the left side and abusing you for forcing them off the road or better still, giving their vehicle a good scraping.
Then there's the performance at small roundabouts, I was abused in foul language by a woman with kids in the car when she decides that she can just shoot across my bow when I'm coming form her right taking up the 2 lanes and she hit the kerb very hard trying.
As I said to her "You've got the kids in the car why don't you drive accordingly you idiot".
No accounting for the things they do or don't do right here at all intersections and roundabouts confuse them more than anything else.
AlanH.

For those that know WA and particularly, welshpool rd, Bentley...

The truck in my avatar is a freightliner, single steer, three rear axles, third of rear axles is a lazy but it is still a triaxle combination... The two trailers and dolly are all tri's and with the extramass permit at level 3 I could carry 23.5 tonne per each axle group plus 6 tonne for steer... 100 tonne total...

Try turning that onto Sevenoaks st, off Welshpool road while crossing the Railway line, coming from Leach highway in Parth...

I usually could get around in 2 tries, but 3 was all that was needed... If wet then go 4 times... Now each attempt, meant backing up to turn the prime mover that little bit more, but do you think the cars would be smart enough to stay back... After the first few times going around the corner and having them sitting there like idiots, I stopped worrying about what they where doing and just backed up and took another bite... Dont know if I run into any, but hey I needed a car length to back up, they should have left that...The trains where my biggest worry, but I never had the booms come down on me, luckily...

The truck drivers here on ALRO would know what tri-axle groups are like, but tri drives is even worse, and all in 27.5 metres, it looks like its all wheels... And brag time now, try driving that around paddocks carting grain or tipping lime which requires driving in crappy paddocks and undulating country, some times tipping on slopes...Oh I miss working, had fun with that toy...

Being able to go into Perth didnt mean it was easy to drive, just allowed to, so we did... I could come out of Perth with 68 tonne of fertilizer in one go... If the trailers where lighter like some others in the yard, then I possibly could have loaded 72 to 73 Tonne of fert/lime/grain, but I had the heavy trailers and the dog had the tiny tyres...(Boss wanted to ruin my reputation of not getting stuck in a truck off road, "I WON")...

I wish I could still go on the road, retirement sucks!!!!

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Originally Posted by Wraithe

For those that know WA and particularly, welshpool rd, Bentley...

The truck in my avatar is a freightliner, single steer, three rear axles, third of rear axles is a lazy but it is still a triaxle combination... The two trailers and dolly are all tri's and with the extramass permit at level 3 I could carry 23.5 tonne per each axle group plus 6 tonne for steer... 100 tonne total...

Try turning that onto Sevenoaks st, off Welshpool road while crossing the Railway line, coming from Leach highway in Parth...

I usually could get around in 2 tries, but 3 was all that was needed... If wet then go 4 times... Now each attempt, meant backing up to turn the prime mover that little bit more, but do you think the cars would be smart enough to stay back... After the first few times going around the corner and having them sitting there like idiots, I stopped worrying about what they where doing and just backed up and took another bite... Dont know if I run into any, but hey I needed a car length to back up, they should have left that...The trains where my biggest worry, but I never had the booms come down on me, luckily...

The truck drivers here on ALRO would know what tri-axle groups are like, but tri drives is even worse, and all in 27.5 metres, it looks like its all wheels... And brag time now, try driving that around paddocks carting grain or tipping lime which requires driving in crappy paddocks and undulating country, some times tipping on slopes...Oh I miss working, had fun with that toy...

Being able to go into Perth didnt mean it was easy to drive, just allowed to, so we did... I could come out of Perth with 68 tonne of fertilizer in one go... If the trailers where lighter like some others in the yard, then I possibly could have loaded 72 to 73 Tonne of fert/lime/grain, but I had the heavy trailers and the dog had the tiny tyres...(Boss wanted to ruin my reputation of not getting stuck in a truck off road, "I WON")...

I wish I could still go on the road, retirement sucks!!!!

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Some thing I didnt point out... If you look at the picture, the left turn has 2 rows of wheel tracks going around into Sevenoaks, thats from trucks... I left tyre marks with the Western Star when delivering in that area, those marks are from smaller roadtrains, same length just 6 wheel prime movers, mostly bogie dollies on the dog...Makes it look like 2 lanes turning.. My tyre marks would show as black marks heading straight to island in Sevenoaks and then going back... For those that are wondering, yes it chopped front tyres out, but couldnt run super singles, she would float then and have no turn...