MH accident in gas station!

I used to train school bus drivers, the biggest challenge I had was getting drivers to understand the need to use their mirrors. One CANNOT be a good driver if you fail to use your mirrors, especially with an oversized vehicle. Mirrors are the only way to know where your rear wheels are to curbs, tree branches, signs etc. Its a very hard thing to teach, people rarely check their mirrors and yet its the only way to be confident of where the vehicle truly is.
I'd tell my trainees "your a bobble head checking those mirrors right and left every minute." you can not pass the CDL test if its not done.
Create the habit of checking mirrors every minute or two and more frequently with turns and backing. Mirrors tell the real story, be wise and use them or pay someone to repair the damage of not being aware.

The driver must have been deaf or on the phone to do that much damage without hearing of feeling it and stopping sooner.

Wow! Lifting that Class A MH up like that from the rear end? (extending the effective wheelbase by 10-11 feet then adding about 14,000 lbs. of REVERSE tongue weight) If the frame wasn't bent as a result of hitting the bollard, it probably is now. Ford does use highly ductile steel in their truck frames but this will be a good test to see just HOW good it is.

To be fair though, considering the damage and under the circumstances, I don't know what else the tow truck driver could have done to get the MH out of the fuel island in a timely manner.

The MH driver must have been really moving through that (really tight) fuel island to do that much damage. It didn't look like the bollard even budged.

Chum lee

^^^ Yes and no. Accident? Not really. Incident? I'd go with that one.

An accident is many times caused by external forces beyond our control. An incident is normally something we bring on ourselves, normally caused by poor judgement.

I hunt; in todays hunters safety training they stress they are no longer called "hunting accidents", they're called "hunting incidents". I agree with their language.

That clearly will not buff out. Bummer.

The way the axle is twisted I'm thinking they'll be shopping for a new one vs repairing that one.

OkieGene wrote:

As a former safety guy, and I've said this literally thousands of times "That's NOT an accident! That's a drivers failure to pay full time attention to what he/she is doing." Accidents are when you're killed or injured by a falling tree limb, for example. In other words, Accidents are accidents, stupid stuff is stupid stuff.

It seems to me that an accident is anything that is not done intentionally. I'm pretty sure the driver of the motorhome didn't intend to destroy the fender and pull the axle out of position and incur a sizable tow truck bill, hence this would be an accident.

More generally, it seems to me that what typically are called accidents are always things that might have been foreseeable and preventable. An earthquake, for instance, is not an accident; leveling a building with an unintended explosion, even if caused by carelessness, is an accident since nobody set out to destroy property. Choosing not to use the facilities when one's bladder is full can lead to a different kind of accident, even though it's entirely foreseeable and preventable.

Couple comments.

As a former safety guy, and I've said this literally thousands of times "That's NOT an accident! That's a drivers failure to pay full time attention to what he/she is doing." Accidents are when you're killed or injured by a falling tree limb, for example. In other words, Accidents are accidents, stupid stuff is stupid stuff.

2nd comments: I've seen many videos of this Hill Wrecker Service on YouTube. Frankly, sometimes he's a decent guy helping people out, but the rest of the time he's usually a total jerk and a butcher destroying peoples vehicles. He just, in my opinion, literally makes worse or destroys peoples vehicles during the process. You should see his beach tows, where people get their vehicles stuck on the Oregon beaches. He will yell and treat people like **** while pulling them out. It's bad enough folks got their vehicles stuck on the sand, then he treats them like **** trying to give them instructions.

Bert Ackerman wrote:
Another example of why there should be mandatory training, testing and licensing to operate anything larger than a car or pickup, or to tow a trailer. A lot of folks can't negotiate a Walmart parking lot in a Kia Soul, and the next day jump in a class A and hit the highway towing it.

Exactly.........In Missouri you need an endorsement on your drivers licence to ride a motorcycle but can drive anything else as long as you're not driving for hire. DUH!

Richard

way2roll wrote:
Lots of armchair quarterbacks on this forum. Many of which I am sure have never made a mistake. Who knows what happened. I feel bad for the person, it had to been gut wrenching not to mention expensive.

I feel bad for the guy too, but if he had looked in his mirror, he would have seen it coming. He caved in two side compartments and hit the rear wheels hard enough to shift them, and pull out the driveshaft. What if that had been someone in a wheelchair at a corner intersection. He would have driven over them. If the rear axle hadn't got hung up on the steel bar, he probably would have dragged the toad through there as well. This is more than a minor oooppps moment. This guy wasn't watching anything at all, and put the pedal down.

Bert Ackerman wrote:
Another example of why there should be mandatory training, testing and licensing to operate anything larger than a car or pickup, or to tow a trailer. A lot of folks can't negotiate a Walmart parking lot in a Kia Soul, and the next day jump in a class A and hit the highway towing it.

For the record, there were approximately 530 people killed last weekend by vehicles driven by people who had "mandatory training, testing and licensing"

Just sayin..............

Lots of armchair quarterbacks on this forum. Many of which I am sure have never made a mistake. Who knows what happened. I feel bad for the person, it had to been gut wrenching not to mention expensive.