-- Edited by Legendts on Thursday 24th of October 2013 04:10:00 PM

-- Edited by Legendts on Thursday 24th of October 2013 04:12:21 PM

A friend of mine came upon the accident and was very upset to see the vehicles burnt out said it made her sick to see it. I told her that everyone was ok she was glad to hear this. I am glad that the truck driver caught it all on camera. He can not get the blame for this one.

Wow Close ?? To bloody close, ?? I watched the video from the milk truck in slow mo, ?? and freeze frame, I to will go along with the Oily Road scenario ??? IMHO that driver took the only action really available to him, by going left and NOT sliding through the intersection, Which Would have been More than likely Fatal ???

I wish them both well, and advise them NOT to buy a Lotto ticket ?? as All there luck was used up in that situation, I would hope that in a similar situation, I would act in the same manner, as I said Earlier, That was probably the best option available, Good luck with your life you two and Keep on Vannin.

I have been in Darwin  (well 250ks out of Darwin with limited access to tv/ internet ) working ,so am behind all in what has been going on in the real world,did not really know how bad the NSW fires were,so can I ask where this accident happened and when ?

All I can say is these people want to thank their lucky stars the guy behind the wheel of the truck was switched on .

A very lucky pair of caravanners.

It's interesting to look for the stop lights on the towing vehicle.  They didn't seem to come on until after the rig jack knifed.  Maybe that was just the angle of the video.

I suppose the accident investigators will find that this video is of great assistance in their investigations.

Seems like the truck driver kept his cool & possibly minimised the the impact on the rig.

These things happen soo quickly.

Lucky campers I reckon.

We saw the results of another very lucky van rollover in front of us just west of Katherine.  An old Ford Falcon panel van pulling a very old single axle Viscount or similar, with over ride breaks passed us at speed just before some roadworks.

When we caught up we saw the family including a couple of kids sitting beside their Falcon loaded up to the roof with clothes, food, bikes & stuff with the van on it's roof.  It seems that they hit all the very rough, potholed dirt road under repair & tried to stop or just lost it.  Fortunately the hitch sheared off & the thin chain broke separating the van from the Falcon.  This prevented what would have been an absolutely tragedy had the Falcon rolled over full of people & possessions.

If you read the responces in the nbn news report the driver of the tug & van in his defence claims to be a truck driver with a lot of experience; seen the oil on the road on his trip back to the hwy before this accident took place. Makes you wonder why he didn't notify the relevant people to deal with this before he became part of it.

Hi ..

On reading Justcruisin01's post I had a look at the 'comments ' section of the newspaper article (as we all should).  Thanks JIm.

Cut & pasted below is the van driver's version of events.

It seems to justify his actions ...  I'll go back & have another look at the brake lights though.

 Having now done that -

Perhaps he had completed his breaking action as the van comes into view (which is why I couldn't see his brake lights) & was doing the L turn manoeuvre without brakes before it jacknifed at which time he reapplied the brakes.  Seems to add up OK.

I'll leave it to the accident investigation experts.

ps. It was the driver behind & others who were the ones to notice the oil on the road.

Van Driver's statement follows ...

My name is Brad. I was the driver of the car and caravan. Without going in to too much detail, I will explain a bit about what happend. I am 53 years old and am a truck driver holding an MC licence with a lot of experience driving heavy vehicles.

When we left Woody Head, I commented to my wife about the amount of oil on the road. The posted speed limit is 100kph, I travelled at 80kph, through the small town, the speed limit is 50kph, I travelled at 40kph. As I approached the intersection I was breaking as per the conditions of the road and was successfully breaking. At about the last 50 to 30 metres the car started to slide and the ABS started operating and was doing nothing to slow the slide. As I have electronice brakes on the van that where working and adjusted correctly, I attempted to use the manual operation but that had no affect either. I had two choices.enter the intersection travelling straight or try to turn left to avoid crossing the intersection. I decided to turn left. This caused a jack knife of the car and van.now I dont know if that was the right decision or not. BUT If the van hadnt have jack knifed we would have been hit right at the drivers door..I will leave the rest to your vivid imagination Garth and Renae.

I spoke to the truck driver and he said it did not look like I was going fast. Even the police officer who viewed the video said the same. I can assure you I was not speeding and the police report will state that.

The driver behind me had actually telephoned his wife to let her know about the amount of oil on the road. Another witness told the police the same thing. Two more witnesses stated to police they saw a truck leaving Iluka leaking oil out of drums. Perhaps, when the truck had slowed to a stop at the intersection the oil got heavier and this is where the loss of control happend. I dont like to get involved in things like this, but on this occasion as it concerns me, I felt I needed to state the facts.

I can only think of the fact that all where so lucky to be un-inured and no loss of life occurred. I agree with you Garth that elderly drivers should be tested at a certain age. But you have your facts wrong in this case

-- Edited by Cupie on Sunday 27th of October 2013 01:07:04 PM .. fixed up spelling, I think