Loaded Box truck

[Tow411]

Topic Originally Created by ILTowman in August of 2012:

 

On August 13, 2012, Joe's Towing & Recovery was contacted by a customer to respond immediately to I-74 Eastbound at the I-474 junction for a single commercial vehicle accident.




Kurt was dispatched to the scene in a 16-ton wrecker.. Bruce was dispatched to the scene as well in a 50-ton Rotator.




Once on scene, Kurt found an International single axle straight loaded truck that had be forced off the road until it made contact with a mobile messaging board on the right shoulder then brought back onto the road where it rolled over blocking two and half lanes of the three lane highway. After performing a walk around, the officers on scene asked if the casualty could be relocated so two of the lanes of travel could be opened. Before being able to move the casualty, the front axle had to be chained back in place since the front left spring perch was knocked off in the accident. Using the 16-ton wrecker the front of the straight truck was winched towards the right side of the road. The middle lane was sweep clean of all debris. Traffic was allowed to travel in the center and left lane until the rest of the units arrived on scene.




Kurt had called back to dispatch to have traffic control and the Incident Support Unit to respond to the scene. The Front of the Refer box had bent the unbolts that were holding the box to the frame of the chassis when the truck went over. The top rail of the box on the down sided had been damaged as well. 




While waiting for the Illinois State Police DOT Trooper to arrive on scene, the truck was prepared to be towed once it was upright. The drive-shaft was removed. An air fitting was installed in the primary air tank. The hood was put back in place as best as it could be. Then a one inch ratchet strap was installed to hold it in place. 




With the DOT Trooper on scene, he began his inspection. During this time Bruce positioned the 50-ton Rotator in the center lane parallel to the casualty. The boom was rotated off the passenger side of the truck. Using two high pressure Matjack bags to lift the rear of truck high enough to get a strap under the box. Once the strap was in place, it was chained to the frame of the chassis. The strap was then rigged to the one of the winch lines on the rotator. It was then tighten up to begin lifting the box up. As the box was being lifted, only the back corner was coming up due to the load in the box. 




Traffic control arrived on scene, it was set up to close down the right lane on I-474 Eastbound to help funnel traffic into the left lane where traffic was able to merge with I-74 traffic into the one lane that was still open.




With the rear strap in place, the control bank, air compressor, hoses and air cushions were removed from the Incident Support Unit. Starting off using a starter bag in the back corner, the box was lifted enough to get another starter bag inserted under the box towards the front of the box. That cushion was inflated until a jumbo turbo cushion could be inserted at the back of the box towards the bottom. With all three cushions lifting, there was enough space to insert another jumbo turbo cushion at the front of the box. Again all of the cushions were inflated some more until there was enough room to remove the starter bags so they could be replaced with a jumbo turbo bag. The new cushion was inflated enough so that the front cushion could be deflated to be repositioned further under the box. 




As the cushions were being inflated the casualty was sliding towards the guardrail. A chain was installed from the rear outrigger leg to the frame of the truck. Once in place a ratchet binder was installed to keep the rear of the truck to slide anymore. The 16-ton wrecker was backed in front of the 50-ton Rotator, one of it's winch lines was rigged to the front of the truck to help hold it in place.




The landing bags were removed from the Incident Support Unit so they could be set up under the wheels that were in the air. A two inch ratchet strap was installed on the front axle to apply the brakes to keep the wheel from rotating once it made contact with landing bag. 




At this point, a second strap was rigged to the casualty at the front of the box attached to the frame as well. It was then attached to the other winch line.

With the cushions lifting the box, the straps were keep tight to assist in the lifting. As the box came up, the wheels came into contact with the landing bags. At this point, everyone was working together, the cushions topped out on their lifting height, the straps were tighten. The blower for the landing bags was shut off allowing the truck to gentle come back down on its wheels.




The air cushions were disconnected and moved to the shoulder of the road. All of the rigging was broken down and returned to it's proper location. The 60-ton wrecker was hooked up to the casualty so it could be towed back to our Creve Coeur location. The units front end was picked up so the landing bag could be removed. The truck was then pulled forward off the rear landing bag. 




All of the air cushions were folded and put back in the Incident Support Unit. The air compressor, control bank and air hoses were returned to their proper place as well. Next the landing bags were folded up and returned to the Support Unit. With everything put away and all debris removed from the road way, traffic control was taken down. The Arrow Board was hooked back up to the truck that pulled it. The road was opened at this time and all remaining units cleared the scene.









































































 

Kurt Wilson

 

scooby said:

looks like it started to shuffle, until you employed my technique... LOL

 

JoeShoreline said:

Great pics.Very informative from start to finish. Thank You.

 

ILTowman said:

Howard you are right...but it was doing more then a shuffle. Since I had to drag it over, it was already close to the guard rail...and then it shifted on the bags. Time to tie it off