Thread: Man dies after being run over while asleep at a camping ground in southern New South

Originally Posted by trout1105

I never rely solely on a handbrake regardless of what car/truck/4WD i am using at the time and i never sleep downhill from ANY vehical either.
Lots of people are now venturing out into the bush which is fantastic But there is very little education or guidence available to these people other than those bloody over the top 4WD TV shows to help them prevent tradgedies like this unfortunately.
A LC handbrake is just as good as any other handbake which is usually just adequate so leaving the car in 1st gear or park on an automatic is mandatory if you want to ensure the truck doesn't move.

....especially the cruiser ones... even FESA have an internal bulletin for them;

Handbrake Improvement | Land Cruiser Club

Originally Posted by trout1105

I never rely solely on a handbrake regardless of what car/truck/4WD i am using at the time and i never sleep downhill from ANY vehical either.
Lots of people are now venturing out into the bush which is fantastic But there is very little education or guidence available to these people other than those bloody over the top 4WD TV shows to help them prevent tradgedies like this unfortunately.
A LC handbrake is just as good as any other handbake which is usually just adequate so leaving the car in 1st gear or park on an automatic is mandatory if you want to ensure the truck doesn't move.

Isn’t parking with the auto in park or a manual in gear plus the brake part of passing the drivers exam ? I recall that I even had to face the front wheels into the curb so that if there was a failure of any sort , the vehicle would likely snag up on the curb.

Originally Posted by trog

Isn’t parking with the auto in park or a manual in gear plus the brake part of passing the drivers exam ? I recall that I even had to face the front wheels into the curb so that if there was a failure of any sort , the vehicle would likely snag up on the curb.

It was when I went for my license 47 years ago and I imagine it is still part of the test, At least I hope it is.

How can you do a handbrake u-turn, on the test, if the handbrake is ineffective?

Tragic that a young man lost his life because of a simple mistake that should be common sense to anyone that drives.

Just talking of the in gear and hand brake on thing, my old apprentice in Canberra had a really bad habit of only using the hand brake and leaving the ute in neutral.

I chipped him time and again, right up until the car started to roll away one day.

Being of a certain age and having cars without effective parking brakes (one Jeep only had the drum on the driveshaft, no guts. I left a brick under the driver's seat for hill parking. Luckily it had a 6.4:1 first gear.....) you realise that leaving a car in gear is the most effective way of stopping a car rolling away.

Another mate who's older than me had his Amarok roll out of his driveway and across the street and right through the neighbours garage.
The neighbours kids were usually playing in the driveway. Luckily they'd just gone inside that day.
Again, he never left any car in gear, he'd been taught not too??
WTF?

Finding some level ground when parking off road is also a good habit to get into, That way even if the handbake isnt applied and the vehicle is out of gear it wont move.
If on the beach partially bogging the 4WD is also pretty good insurance against the truck moving off on its own.

Hi,
Fighting fires on the slopes of Mt Wellington, we had to swap Toyotas as our pump was flooding, possibly a leaky carby float letting in too much petrol.
We really only wanted the parts to fix the problem in the field.
But no!
HQ don't want the vollies doing mechanical work.
So a shiny pantsed chap drives a new Toyota up the track to hand it over to us.
He parked it on the slope and as he walked over to our Toyota, his took off down the slope, mounted a fallen tree, airbourne it tumbled down the hill stopping on its side against a large tree.
Ooops!
Gearbox in neutral.
All we needed was a few $ worth of bits.
Cheers