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Hi,
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megatruckers – Heavy Haulage Australia

I think this is what I watched on TV years ago, not positive, but close enough.
Myself? I've never driven anything bigger than a Rural Fire Service medium tanker .
Cheers

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Originally Posted by V8Ian

John, these movements have been happening for over twelve months.
No-one is denying the driver failed to take off ramp, the question is why.
As you know, these jobs are not handed to kids who got their licence last week, so despite the accusations of the ignorant, the driver is not a dickhead.
I've seen dozens of these movements pass my front gate, I know how they are operating.
I've also been in roles that require police and pilots. I've learnt to never rely on the cops, their role is purely to legitimize the movement. The pilots do all the work, if you get a bad one the job can go to manure very quickly. I used to request my pilot by name, to ensure I only needed to drive the truck, not the pilot car too.

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All of this is why I prefaced my remarks with “if true”. I have some experience with police and pilots.

@austastar least said about John Kelly, the better. [bigwhistle]

Any chance he was following a truckie GPS that knows bridge clearances, etc?

I doubt it Ron, I don't think there is a GPS that would accept his parameters.

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Originally Posted by V8Ian

And you know this how?

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It was in all the news channels.

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Originally Posted by V8Ian

And fairly enough you prefaced your opinion with "my reading of it". That's totally different from some loudmouth 1200km away making a statement, calling the driver a dickhead, without all the facts. Heaven to Betsey, the cops are still investigating and they were on the scene.

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Yes the facts as reported on various news feeds. And dont call me a loudmouth before you know the facts. A moderator should know better - personal abuse and all that.

Perhaps the pilot vehicle/s roared away from the truck so he couldn't see which way they went, so thought it was safe to go under the bridge if they weren't waiting to lead him around it.

I went past there today and there was a diversion in place this afternoon but that seemed to have been cleared this evening. According to Qld traffic the highway is open but the overpass is not.

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Originally Posted by RANDLOVER

Perhaps the pilot vehicle/s roared away from the truck so he couldn't see which way they went, so thought it was safe to go under the bridge if they weren't waiting to lead him around it.

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Precisely my theory. All except the truck driver are on job and go, so they are moving at a decent rate. The previous bridge, over the Bremmer, has restrictions and a 60kph, camera enforced limit. After the bridge the limit immediately increases to 100kph. All the pilot cars will out accelerate a ~100 tonne truck.
The missed exit is following a sweeping left hand bend, obscured by scrub. The exit is a left right ess coming to a roundabout that is obscured by the southern overpass approach. The pilot has raced ahead to close/control the roundabout. The roundabout is totally invisible from the eastern side of the affected overpass.
I have seen these movements on the highway, in my experienced opinion they are travelling too fast with the pilots way too far (<2km) in front.
This is my educated opinion, not merely relying on notoriously poor and inaccurate media reports.

How many pilot vehicles are usually with these things, Ian? When I was moving bridge beams ( not quite as high, but far longer, 95 tonne ) we had police as point, VicRoads second, and a couple of pilots front and rear, with VicRoads ( magenta flashing beacons ) last. In these movements the pilot always stayed near. Admittedly, in my case, there was never a time when I was unsighted, at least one pilot stayed with the truck. They also closed the Burnley tunnel for our passage.

One of the things famously came off, but that's another story in which, thankfully, I was not involved. When these things go wrong they are usually spectacular.