flying ladders

[pk1was]

a few years ago i won quite a lucrative contract installing cctv in a prison in doncaster, i decided to employ a young labourer and a sub contract electrician gang as well as myself. one night as we left the prison and joined the main A road all seemed well, we had a good day and were quite proud of ourselves, we reached 60mph in the tranny and had talk sport on, when the van in front (our sub contract pals) launched the anchors on due to some hooligan overtaking on the opposite side of the road. as we did the same we heard a noise from above likened to an express train, yes you guessed it the three tier aluminium ladders were leaving us and decided to impale themselves in the astra back window, whilst also damaging my bonnet.

he was the last apprentice!

 

[andy]

similar thing happened to us before, we have a heavy duty chain for security and also as a fail safe if the 2 straps come loose. from the cross bar, the metal runs foreward about .75M where it ends. someone wrapped the chain around this and the ladder. so basically, if the straps were gone the ladder would just fly forward

 

[masona]

Years ago we put an 8'x4' sheet of plywood on top of the van onto the roof rack, didn't have a rope to hold it in, then my guvnor said use 4 G-cramps on each corner of the plywood. Arrived at the site, the 4 G-cramps and the plywood gone completely, we have no idea where it gone

 

[WoodYouLike]

Many years ago we drove on a very empty (fortunately) motorway in France. Some 200 meters in front of us we saw a truck REVERSING to a large white block (couldn't really determine if it was concrete or one of those 'soft' building blocks packed together) 100 meters in front of us.
Blimey! If we had driven right behind that truck when it lost his cargo!!!

 

[petewood]

Some years ago I was working at a school using schoolkids as labour (it was one of their projects). After we finished they loaded all my stuff into the back of the truck and off I went. When I got back to the yard about 10 miles away(and up some steep hills) I found that someone had pulled out the pins securing the bottom of the tailgate (the truck used to be a tipper) so the tailgate had been flapping on it's top pins. I had lost a new 50' extension reel, a spirit level, an unopened bag of cement and a couple of other things. Luckily my toolbox had been right up behing the cab so I still had that.
As my house was near the school where I'd been working I completely retraced the journey in my car but didn't find a single item. I couldn't even see cement on the road where the bag may have burst.

 

[Stoday]

I was pulling up behind a lorry at some traffic lights. There was a rope dangling from the back of the lorry onto the road. I thought "If I'm good, I could trap that rope with my tyre".

It did trap the rope and the lorry turned right and the rope spun out streaching all the way across the opposite lane. I thought "that's bad it could cause an accident" but before I could drive off the rope pulled a cement mixer off the back.

I still don't know the final outcome because I bu99ered off quick.

 

[empip]

I was pulling up behind a lorry at some traffic lights. There was a rope dangling from the back of the lorry onto the road. I thought "If I'm good, I could trap that rope with my tyre".

It did trap the rope and the lorry turned right and the rope spun out streaching all the way across the opposite lane. I thought "that's bad it could cause an accident" but before I could drive off the rope pulled a cement mixer off the back.

I still don't know the final outcome because I bu99ered off quick.

Magic !!

 

[tarren]

We were carrying our hanger ladder, one piece, 40 footer, on our small lorry. It rested on the tailgate and on a H frame over the cab which resulted in the front end pertruding some 10' in front of the cab and about 8' off the ground.
Following a double decker, our dozy driver couldn't stop in time and the ladder hit the bus just under the rear window. The conducter rushed out onto the bus platform to see what had hit him. We just stared at him and he just stared back at our lorry, all he had to do was look up to where our ladder was stuck in his bus, but could you Adam and Eve it, he never did, just stood there scratching his head. Was all we could do was not to look up and give the game away.

 

[Tim 77]

A few years ago I was heading back into Nottingham after a day at Alton Towers when I came across a haed on smash between a Transit and an Astra van, a set of ladders had flew off the top of the Astra, smashed through the windscreen of the Transit pinning the driver to his seat, to make matters worse the Transit's engine was starting to smoke. Thankfully I had a fire extingusier which I'd 'borrowed' of some welders on my last job some I jumped out all hero like and extinguised the small engine fire!!

 

[d4n]

I also experienced a run in with a vehicle shedding load. It was during the summer on a roundabout above the M25. A large 12 wheel crane was thundering towards the roundabout that I was on. As it turned to join the slip road to join the M25 a large wooden wheel about 2 meters high came loose and began to roll like a giant coin along the road towards the roundabout - and me. I was able to apply some brake to avoid the disc as it rumbled past infront of me. Fortunatally for the drivers on the M25 the barriers at the center of the roundabout knocked the wooden disc back.. Unfortunatally into the path of the nissan micra driver behind me.

 

[bernardgreen]

Once saw a small car with 8 by 4 sheets of plywood strapped above the roof by ropes through open windows. Sheet were curved down at the sides and the front end was higher than the rear end.

Driving into the wind and just as it was entering a sharp right bend there was a gust of wind.

The plywood bent up and obviously the front wheels became so light they lost grip and steering as the car went out of control over the verge and into the ditch.

 

[mattp94]

I used to work in the steel industry and my site made steel rod in the form of 2 tonne coils. The transport lorries would carry 10 of these coils at a time to the various distribution depots or customers. One unlucky driver was always getting ribbed by the despatch team who would continually ask if he needed one extra.

It turned out that on one very early morning delivery, a coil had broken loose and rolled off the back of his wagon. It made it over 300 yards down the road before coming to a halt, demolishing 7 parked cars in the process.
Thankfully nobody was hurt, but the transport company had a lot of explaining to do to the insurers.

 

[TicklyT]

A few years back I was following an old transit pickup that was carrying a load of UPVC windows and doors and a long 2 section ally ladder wedged against the tailboard and lashed to an H frame behind the cab, with the front overhanging the cab.
The tranny turned right, but the ladder didn't! The top slid across the H bar, so it was hanging over the pavement.

I was just thinking 'that dont 'arf look dangerous - Better try and stop the guy', but I didn't have time. About 10 yards further up the road was an old concrete lamp post. One stile of the ladder ended up either side of it ....BANG.....CLATTER .......CRASH....... TINKLE.... The bottom of the ladder pushed through the tailboard, the ladder then folded in the middle as the top slid up the lamp post and wrenched the light off the top of the post. The light then came crashing down on top of the windows on the back of the tranny.

Nobody was injured, so I quickly made myself a prior appointment somewhere else a long way away, made my excuses and left, carefully skirting round the pile of broken glass in the road.

 

[lvsystems]

Fraid to say i'm guilty of the ladder one too. A few years ago working in basingstoke . The guy I was working with told me to put the ladders on the van I thought we need them again so didn't put the clamps on. Came out of the site got about 500 yards away and with me following behind the ladders spun off the roof straight over the top of my van and landed in a field. Quite spectacular. Funny thing was he didn't even realise til i phoned him. The ladders were in remarkably good condition and thankfully landed well away from the road


Ever since then I never drive off without checking the ladders are secure

 

[Steve]

lvsystems, at least they didn't land on my dad's car! As a builder's wheelbarrow once did from the back of a pickup. They didn't even notice either, this was at 70 on the motorway. His car needed a new bumper, bonnet, headlight, wing. Didn't get his reg, as he was too busy finding his way to the hard shoulder.