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Steel yourself for danger... (
Page 28
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THE PICTURE (CM 4 August) showing a one-tonne girder penetrating a truck cab window reminds me that such events are not new,but did it come as a shock to the driver concerned'?
The picture shows the load secured by a chain and tightners. Many of us who have managed companies and loads secured in this manner will, 1 think, agree that they are indeed dangerous loads to haul.
I'm sure your archive files will contain many reports, where steel girders, flat strip/angle and reinforcement rod steels have pierced the headboard, then entered the cab-especially where the fibreglass cabs of the old Atkinson and ERF designs were encountered often with fatal results for the driver involved.
Reinforced headboards and double headboards were designed and fitted to try to reduce such fatalities. Modern vehicle braking normally ensures that the vehicle stops when an emergency brake application is made.This, alas, does not mean that the load will also come to rest in the same short distance, as confirmed in the reported incident.
Your recent article on load-security and anticipated EU directives expected shortly may well call for new secure load fixing points and practices; we await the red-tape with trepidation.
Perhaps we need to remind ourselves that the carriage of such loads of steel, in its various guises, may be without need of a hazchem label indicating a dangerous load, but it is certainly far from hazard-free!