Looks like he clipped the semi. Should be sent away for some serious driver training before he hurts people.
Those guys on motorcycle were lucky.

And yes No sympathy.

Bobdown wrote:

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Apparently $400 fine and the cost of a new van.

From the story.......

The 57-year-old male driver of the Ford Ranger was issued an infringement for overtaking when unsafe to do so.

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     And that's not enough. Can you imagine the furore if the truckie did not have a camera to prove that he was simply going about his business, doing his job.

Some self-apponted safety-expert reporter would have a field day discussing "rogue truckies" or some such garbage, and all the sheep would say "Baa", as they tend to do when any thinking is involved. 

It was reported on TV tonight that the Drivers' Union wants a special licence for caravanners. 

And the sooner the better, I say. Too often we see Ma and Pa Kettle retire, sell the Corolla, the biggest vehicle they've ever driven, raid their super account to rush out to buy a twin-cab or other unsuitable car that has a totally unsafe 3500kg tow rating , buy the BIG 3500kg van to go with their entirely unsuitable vehicle, load up the boat and outboard, take everything but the kitchen sink and set sail to "Do the BIG lap" . 

And so often it all ends in tears.

It is absolutely ridiculous to allow people who may think that they're "good drivers" but have never towed anything bigger than a 6x4 garden trailer, to go out and buy what is effectively an articulated vehicle combination that may weigh well over 6000kg, while professional drivers of lighter trucks need  to upgrade to an entirely different class of licence simply to drive a rigid vehicle that weighs more than 4500kg.

Ma and Pa then set sail, but they are an accident looking for a place to happen. Cheers

For this WA incident, the video, photos and reporting did not indicate any Ma and Pa Kettle in an overloaded vehicle with an overloaded van. More like a late fifties driver, in a modern ute with a van, making a driving error.  I assume that the bikes were the nearest oncoming vehicles to the offending caravaner.  The bikes are likely to be more difficult to see than a car or a truck.
Looked like poor judgement or lack attention when the utility vehicle and van was passing a long heavy vehicle.  Also poor choice of a location for an overtaking manoeuvre, as the unbroken white line was evident in the video footage.

On a number of occasions, not very often, thankfully, if I had not braked sharply, the front end of my vehicle would have been intimately connected with the front wheels of the rear axle bogey of a semi trailer as the truck rig moved to the left prematurely, after passing my vehicle. Presumably, the truck drivers concerned had the appropriate heavy vehicle licences, and are supposed to know the length of their rig and drive accordingly.

-- Edited by watsea on Monday 24th of April 2023 10:15:29 PM

-- Edited by watsea on Monday 24th of April 2023 10:16:26 PM

watsea wrote:

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For this WA incident, the video, photos and reporting did not indicate any Ma and Pa Kettle in an overloaded vehicle with an overloaded van. More like a late fifties driver, in a modern ute with a van, making a driving error.  I assume that the bikes were the nearest oncoming vehicles to the offending caravaner.  The bikes are likely to be more difficult to see than a car or a truck.
Looked like poor judgement or lack attention when the utility vehicle and van was passing a long heavy vehicle.  Also poor choice of a location for an overtaking manoeuvre, as the unbroken white line was evident in the video footage.

On a number of occasions, not very often, thankfully, if I had not braked sharply, the front end of my vehicle would have been intimately connected with the front wheels of the rear axle bogey of a semi trailer as the truck rig moved to the left prematurely, after passing my vehicle. Presumably, the truck drivers concerned had the appropriate heavy vehicle licences, and are supposed to know the length of their rig and drive accordingly.

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Perhaps you had annoyed the driver by driving too slowly, or some other earlier perceived indiscretion, and it was "payback"?

Without saying too much, I have personally witnessed this "payback" happen on two separate occassions, and believe me, it wasn't pretty for the caravan. 

Unlike the majority of caravanners we know how to use mirrors, and know exactly where the back of our last trailer  is.                 We've all seen the slogan "Without trucks Australia stops", but some just don't seem to understand what it means.

The "Gotta get past the truck. Gotta get past the truck" attitude is prevalent, and some of the overtaking manoeuvres I see are beyond stupid, but once these clowns are ahead they'll then slow to 85km/hr. Why?

We are working to a time schedule, while caravanners generally are on holiday, so they should be under no pressure.

Let us go, and, most importantly, don't play games with the Big Boys. You'll lose.  Cheers

  Note:- Photo was taken by me, but  is for illustration purposes only.

Magnarc wrote:

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Driver error????? Sheer and utter stupidity. I see it every day here in Melbourne people in a hurry with no thought for the safety of others let alone themselves. I have watched that clip three or four times and there is no way that he had enough room to get back in, before collecting those bikies. A total Richard Cranium who is very lucky not to have at least two deaths on his conscience.

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 The marks on the truck's bullbar show that it was hit hard by the  caravan, but how hard this hit was can be seen at around the 38-40 second mark where the whole unit, prime mover and trailers, temporarily snakes. Cheers

peter67 wrote:

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Gundog wrote:

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Primary error is underestimating the gap between the truck and the vehicle ahead.

If it was me I'm quiet happy to stay back behind the semi and back my speed off to increase the gap to allow others to overtake me.

Hells Bells he's got his bed behind him whats the rush.

 

PS there was another rollover near Proserpine a couple of days ago, but I cannot find any details that are not hidden behind a pay wall.

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"hells bells"  Gundog. According to my long deceased grandmother, whom I only heard use the saying once as it was considered to be a mild form of surprised/cursing back then was, "hells bells and buggy wheels" cheers.

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 Yes, things certainly have changed over the years.

When I was a youngster the use of the word "bloody" resulted in me having my mouth washed out with salty water!

And one of Gran's saying was "As close as 'Damn it' is to swearing". 

Now the "Punt" and "Luck" words, or similar, are used with monotonous regularity, thus losing their intended impact. Sad. Cheers

tea spoon wrote:

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my mate and his wife went on a long road trip Adelaide to Ceduna ......he said he saw a hunded or so vans each day . ......not one prang at all ......my point is there are hundreds of vans around at times and very few prangs ........same goes for cars ......why do vans make such a big deal ......

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Have you considered the fact that there is a relatively small number of caravans in comparison with the number of cars, and that the total number of kilometres travelled by cars would be many thousands of times greater than the number of kilometres travelled by caravans? 
Did your mate count the "hundred or so vans" or did he just pick a random number in an effort to bolster his claim?                                

And did he really expect to see a prang simply because he drove a couple of kilometres and saw a few vans? Spare me!    

This makes about as much sense as listening to those who bleat about the number of trucks involved in accidents.  

Recently I read that cars are driven an "average" of 40km/day, whereas we truckies regularly travel 1000km/day, (25 times as many daily kms) so obviously we are more likely to be involved in an accident. However, over 80% of fatal accidents involving both cars and trucks are caused by the car driver. Cheers

watsea wrote:

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Yobarr,

You must right. There are must be no truckies out there who make an error.

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 Watsea of course they dont!   It is not possible as they have all been trained and have a licence 

https://7news.com.au/news/melbourne/terrifying-new-vision-shows-moment-truck-slams-into-multiple-cars-on-melbourne-freeway-c-10465064

TimTim wrote:

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watsea wrote:

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Yobarr,

You must right. There are must be no truckies out there who make an error.

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 Watsea of course they dont!   It is not possible as they have all been trained and have a licence. 

 https://7news.com.au/news/melbourne/terrifying-new-vision-shows-moment-truck-slams-into-multiple-cars-on-melbourne-freeway-c-10465064

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 It was an accident, and no doubt the driver has appropriate licence, but people like you seem unable to understand that truckies travel up to 1000km/day while the average car travels 40km. Anybody with any understanding of numbers would know that the chances of an accident increase with length of time on the road.

Please refer to my post in this thread, made at 7.44pm on April 27th and try hard to absorb and process the supplied information? Good luck with that though. Cheers