Well, I don't how how some steering wheel attendants get to drive the big trucks - but here's one guy who will no doubt, go back to flipping burgers .... Full-size pic here - http://i47.tinypic.com/2lxe25i.jpg The accident site was a little remote for the news crews (Port Hedland, Western Australia), and it all happened in the early hours, so they couldn't get a crew out there before the Police closed the Gt Northern Highway down. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-01/lost-load-great-northern-highway-near-port-hedland/4495814 The conveyor was being shipped in from China, and was heading to a minesite in NW Western Australia. The conveyor made it all the way out of China to Port Hedland, but these clowns barely made it out of the industrial area of Pt Hedland. The conveyor is a total write-off, despite looking in not too bad a shape. The total damages bill is expected to top AU$30M. :crying
I'd be offering the insurance company scrap value for that in a hurry, may be junk as a whole but lots of valuble bits and pieces that would be unharmed.....meanwhile said insurance company will be giving the shippers a reaming with the rates if it doesn't break the trucking company completely. can't see it being worth 30M though.
At least there was no car beside him.
Ben - The $30M would be the total cost of ordering a new replacement conveyor - the road damage - craneage to remove the wreckage - Emergency services callout costs - probably some damage to the trailer - the mining company sueing for loss of production because of construction delay - plus a host of other "incidental" bills that I'm sure will land on managers desks. The lawyers will have a field day, and the paperwork will fill a room. It seems that this company, who I won't name (but their name starts with "M" ), have had a few more "little oopsies", that have been carefully shunted under the desk. Here's one that was recorded (link below) - I believe that they had a huge "oopsie" in the U.S. some years ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx9VeATrthw
When you said M, I was thinking miller. Mammoet usually has their act together. But I guess good help is hard to find.
A whole lot of chiefs standing around in that second link and it looked like no one could tell who was responsible for anything.
Hey I watched Mega truckers and as such am an expert in the shifting of large loads. Therefore my expert opinion is that they did not compensate for the traffic island, causing the tall load to tilt and break it's lashings. Actually it looks like further up it's ripped part of the trailer assembly off the trailer. So they got that part strapped on OK. Responsibility lies with the foreperson in charge of the move. Of course it is possible that the trailer suspension failed, was overloaded, etc
was it shipped from China? there's some statements floating around that it was put together locally?? There has been afew shifts done using differant trailers (alot wider) which may have had been a factor, as with any accident there are multiple factors which would have come into play
Rare ss - The info I got from the BIL, who is an accredited MRD oversize escort, is that the conveyor was shipped in from China - although it may have had some components fabricated here and fitted to it. We do have the biggest conveyor belt manufacturing facility in the world located in Perth (that's just the belt material, I mean). BIL was originally working out of Perth, escorting oversize to the North from Perth. Now, he's being flown to Pt Hedland to start escorts, and he escorts from Pt Hedland out to the minesites - thus indicating that a lot of stuff is being shipped in direct from China, already fabricated. I'm surprised the trailer isn't wider - but it may have been closed up when the pic was taken, which was only a short time after the mishap. I'm hazarding an educated guess - as a previous owner of a 100 tonne Drake float - that the driver pulled over to the centre of the road to avoid an obstruction at the road edge (a big road sign?), ran the RH wheels up on the median strip - and that was enough to flip the conveyor off. John C - The guys are probably standing around while everything is being recorded, forms are being filled in, measurements taken - and the managers have yet to arrive, as it is 7:43AM - and the manure is still being disseminated by the whirling blades ...
Ozdozer,I've got an email with 21 pics on it that are doing the workshop circuits at the moment if you havn't already got it. Its got some close up shots.
Link belts are though it will be fine, just put the tracks on and get to work.
Ray, were you examining those pics carefully, to see if there was any potential for some "re-boring & re-alignment" work?? Sent you an email as regards the pics.
Being BHP they will probably scrap it But there is some potential for a bout of serious earning in that. But it won't be me doing it. I spent 4 months on a couple of those years ago and I never want to get involved in another one:tong They are actually an easy job but the engineer's and the inspectors,none of whom want to want to say yay or nay because then its their head on the block is frustrating.We had one inspector responsible for sizes that could not understand that in the middle of summer the diameter of a 15 inch bore will be different depending on whether you measure it at 6 am or 3 pm. Then some of the masts being 50 metres long and leaving 5mm in the bores to come out.By the time they finished welding out 50 metres of steel it had shrunk 35mm.So you can't machine the bores on the ends to clean up to the spec. That one had them spinning for days So twenty years later that one is going to be a nightmare! Never got an email? PM me and I'll send you the address. BTW the story I got on the accident was the driver lifted one side of the trailer instead of lowering it when straddling that traffic island
The trailer was a fixed width Goldhofer type platform, they are quite narrow but join up side by side to get the width and higher payloads, your right though, the 100t Drake float are quite prone to tipping due to the suspension oscelation on either of the "wings" either way I think it'll be sitting there for awhile
Ha if the mine back bills for production loss 30 million would be just the start
the bigger miners are self insured which is the reason they will try and recoupe the full cost of the incident from the contractor/s insurance companies
Ouch.....
The lawyers will have a field day, and the paperwork will fill a room. Years ago, I made the comment (after sitting through one) that outside every courtroom where there was a claim or lawsuit regarding construction there was a scale; if your paper outweighed their paper, you won. It was easier than spending time in court. However, in this modern age, they do not weigh paper; they just measure your gigabytes. Same difference just “saves trees” and wastes electricity…