That went well...

One police car and two pilots John. I suspect both pilots were holding the out of sight roundabout.

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Originally Posted by V8Ian

One police car and two pilots John. I suspect both pilots were holding the out of sight roundabout.

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Strewth. With the bridge beams you could probably have seen us from space. The lights were like that scene in Apocalypse Now. Full on convoy. They moved four of the things at a time, each with its own entourage, about 15 minutes apart.

Gotta admit, I wouldn't have been comfortable in this driver's situation. A pilot is supposed to pilot. Still, I suspect it will all come out in the wash. But "opinions" is why I avoid the "news".

John, you know my driveway. When they pass my joint, the cop car is out of sight before the load comes into sight, the pilot is a good 1.5~2 km in front of the truck with the back door pilot 6' behind the truck.
Ultimately the truck driver should be setting the pace, but as we all know it's hard to hold your ground when you are outnumbered, particularly when the law is the lead escort and wants to get finished as early as possible.

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Originally Posted by V8Ian

John, you know my driveway.

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I thought you had moved up the range.

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Originally Posted by V8Ian

When they pass my joint, the cop car is out of sight before the load comes into sight, the pilot is a good 1.5~2 km in front of the truck with the back door pilot 6' behind the truck.

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Why so far in front? With more than one, sure, warn the oncoming etc., but surely one should stay with the truck. The backdoor guy I get, keep the muppets from impatiently overtaking ( as you know, they will ). We always had a tail end Charlie a way back as well.

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Originally Posted by V8Ian

Ultimately the truck driver should be setting the pace, but as we all know it's hard to hold your ground when you are outnumbered, particularly when the law is the lead escort and wants to get finished as early as possible.

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The truck will only do what the truck will only do. Imo the whole show should revolve around those limitations. And bugger the law, they're probably getting paid more than anyone else in the convoy, and protecting the public is their job ffs. But yes, they do get impatient, as if they have better things to do. In our case they were HP cars. We were probably too slow for them.

Seems that there are a number of problems with these movements. Dunno about you, but I'd like to think that I would have simply stopped and asked where the **** are you guys, but it's easy to say, sitting here. But of course the media will hang the driver out to dry. They definitely have form. Now it's off the "front page" so to speak, we'll probably need to hunt for the reports.

That overpass how busy is it? The one that got away here struck the centre support for the Ferntree Gully Road on ramp to the Monash. THAT caused some issues for the traffic. They obviously had to check its structural integrity, as it was a big hit. I reckon the poor bloke in the cement tanker coming the other way would still have nightmares, but he kept it upright, so kudos to him.

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Originally Posted by V8Ian

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.

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I'm liking this theory more and more as the bridge layout is exactly as you've described it and fresh in my memory and is the route they diverted us around yesterday.

The latest news is the bridge overpass has opened one lane to cars....Mount Crosby overpass reopens after truck crashes into bridge on Warrego Highway - ABC News

It's had one lane (the northbound) lane open for a couple of days. I think it has traffic control to alternate direction.
Its chaos on the westbound highway at pm peak, with a kilometre of stationary traffic trying to head toward Mt. Crosby.

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Originally Posted by p38arover

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

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This GPS looks like it can programme truck routes.

https://www.amazon.com.au/Bluetooth-...Y2hfYXRm&psc=1

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Originally Posted by RANDLOVER

This GPS looks like it can programme truck routes.

https://www.amazon.com.au/Bluetooth-...Y2hfYXRm&psc=1

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There's a few of them around. Certainly not Google or Apple maps. I have one for my phone from Sygic. They made the first turn by turn mapping app I ever used, and they also offer a truck one where you enter the dimensions and mass. It's good, but it's global in nature. Pretty big database to keep up to date. Would I trust it? NO.We've all seen the amusing vids of muppets who drove into a paddock, or a river, or the North Sea because the GPS "told" them to. It's not so funny in something big.

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Originally Posted by Tins

There's a few of them around. Certainly not Google or Apple maps. I have one for my phone from Sygic. They made the first turn by turn mapping app I ever used, and they also offer a truck one where you enter the dimensions and mass. It's good, but it's global in nature. Pretty big database to keep up to date. Would I trust it? NO.We've all seen the amusing vids of muppets who drove into a paddock, or a river, or the North Sea because the GPS "told" them to. It's not so funny in something big.

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Thanks for the link Tins, I sent it to my mate who is worried about driving his massive camper van around.

I also don't trust GPS's and like to have a rough idea of where I'm going when following one.

I nearly drove into a swamp once following a GPS that came with the D3, the dirt road became a muddy track and then I saw water lilies at the bottom of the slope and managed to do a three point turn without getting bogged.