Oh So Close

Schmitty30 · May 4, 2019

Topic Originally Created on Tow411 in January of 2015:

On the morning of Sunday October 26 around 7:45 am, we received a call from the Ohio Turnpike Commission for an overturned commercial at the 145mm westbound decel ramp. We immediately responded with one of our 50 ton wreckers to secure the scene and relay information back to our dispatch center for additional equipment that would be needed.

Once on scene, our operator found a tandem axle day cab pulling a 53 foot reefer trailer loaded with approximately 30,000 of miscellaneous perishable freight headed for a local grocery store. The unit had come to rest inches away from the property fence at the bottom of the hill. The trailer was determined to be mostly intact, less a few roof bows broken through the ceiling. Given the location at the top of the decel ramp and the narrow, blind curve, the turnpike advised they wanted to keep as much of the lane open as possible. We dispatched two of our 60 ton rotators, our air cushion recovery trailer, our single axle dolly convertor, and a service truck to contain any potential spills.

Once on scene, we uncoupled the tractor from the trailer, uprighted it, brought it to the road, and prepped it for tow. It was hooked to our 50 ton and towed back to the customer's facility. Once that was out of the way, our team decided the most efficient and safest way to recover the trailer would be to winch it to the edge of the shoulder and upright it onto the shoulder, thus allowing traffic to continue to flow at all times. We placed one rotator at each end of the trailer, winched it up the hill, placed our convertor on the king pin and chained it in place. We also chained the tires from rolling as it was brought onto the landing cushions.

At this point we began placing our cushions under the trailer for the upright. Knowing we were on a negative slope, and not wanting the trailer to "roll" across the bags and back down the hill, we placed one drag line from each rotator to the bottom of the trailer to hold it in place. As we placed our cushions, we were very cautious to pad any areas where sharp edges would damage them. Once the cushions were almost fully inflated, we placed our recovery straps. We used four straps secured to various points on the under side of the trailer to distribute as much of the weight as possible. Working together, our rotators uprighted the trailer onto our waiting landing cushions.

Once upright, we removed the trailer from the shoulder to a open parking lot, and packed up our cushions to be brought back to our Middleburg Hts. facility to be cleaned properly and put away for the next job. The reefer unit was able to be refired after fluids were checked and the customer was very happy that we were able to complete the recovery without opening the trailer or compromising the integrity of the product.

We would like to thank all of our team that gave up their Sunday morning plans to come out and assist with this recovery. Without that team work, this job, like most, would not have been nearly as easy and successful. Great job guys!

Once again, our Sonetics headsets made this job exponentially easier, with yelling removed and communication a breeze. We can't wait for our next set to arrive.

Thanks for looking and as always,

BE SAFE!!!