Case No 3: Blown out — across the Autobahn
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Dave Street, CFDC area officer for Rainham, has been driving HGV 1 for about 10 years. He has driven to Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and other Middle Eastern Countries, as well as Germany and Italy. He is self-employed, and works for BH Services in Barkingside, Essex.
The worst thing that happened to him took place in Germany one night when he was trucking along the 01 towards Ludwigshafen from the Basel border. Dave takes up the story ...
"I was driving along at about 80kph and got a blow out on the front tyre. I went across the autobahn in front of a tanker that was overtaking me at the time. He skidded and went into a jacknife. I got over onto the hard shoulder, but the other driver managed to control the spin and stopped a good few yards up the road.
"As we were spinning across the road the locking ring came off and went across the front of the tanker and ripped his spot lights off. I paid him for these and we shook hands. He offered to help with the tyre but I said that I could manage.
"However, as I had had two other punctures I had used my spare. I was driving a Ford with a lift-up rear axle. Having used the inside wheel, the only thing could do was use the other. So I managed to get the front up. I had split the trailer from the unit so that I could lift the axle and take the wheel off, but this left no lights on the trailer and it was dark. I did have flashing orange lights plus two triangles and a hazard board behind the trailer, so there was plenty of warning. I was-also wearing white.
"As I was taking the nuts off
1./ICS the lift-up axle, most of the truckers were giving me plenty of room. Anyone who drives regularly through Germany will know that they don't go slow! And I kept looking around. Suddenly, at the moment when I was concentrating on removing the nuts, there was a smash — I leapt up in the air and threw myself onto the fifth wheel, cutting my face open on the pullhandle.
"When I got off to see what had happened, a German truck had come down the side of the trailer ripping his mirror and arm off his truck and my mirror and arm off mine. As he went past he had caught my feet but they were not injured.
"The German driver stopped a few hundred yards down the road and walked back with his torch but he did not realise that he had hit me although his mirror was gone. He looked at my face and seeing the blood, he stopped the first car and called the police. They arrived and had a talk with him; he admitted he had fallen asleep and apologised. The police took him away, and th-e ambulance took me away.
"After they had cleaned me up I went back to the truck and saw that all the work was done.
"Everyone feels sleepy at the wheel sometimes; it could have been you or me in that other truck. For God's sake pull over if you do — and give other people a chance."