When you think you're having a bad day!!!!!

[Tow411]

Topic Originally Created by cliffwm10069 in November of 2006:

 

This was a recovery one of our drivers responded to with our 1060 stick. While driving in he was throwing up dust (that should tell you how dry the road was). and then it happened,the road gave out from under us. truck #2 responded and got within 1/2 mile of the red truck and it fell in. Eppler towing and a cat d-7 w/winch was brought in to help retrieve the 2 tows and the bobtail. NOTE; the black cloud over our head for three days, we took the picture of it 5 miles away. did i mention it took 3 18 hour days and a bent boom on the yellow 4024 eppler truck before it was over.

 

 

 

 

this is what we were heading for.

 

 

 

 

 

there's the d-4 with a winch we thought could help

 

 

 

my pickup bringing in supplies(or so i thought)

this should have been a sign!

 

This is what we did after we were done.

 

and then company meeting to follow!

[Tow411]

After more than 15,000 views on January 9th and over 200 respectable replies other than one from Jamie Dougherty where he would Fire both drivers.

 

On January, 9th 2008 Cliff responded with:

I can't believe 5 pages. I hope everyone has learned from this post. Just a note though, walking this would do you no good, unless you weigh 58,000 lbs., remember the ground would kick up dust as you walked on it. Very hard ground(for the first few inches). Never saw it coming!

 

Maurice Trevor Andrews responded:

Cliff take the "shoulda woulda coulda" with a grain of salt. The folks that know of you and the operation you run knows that you would'nt go out there knowing that was beneath the surface and like you said, unless you weigh 58,000 pounds you would have never seen it coming either.

 

An Unknown Member responded:

I am just speechless by what happened here. As someone who works in the excavation business, I have never seen or heard of any ground situation like this ever. It reminds me of the lava flows in Hawaii, hard crust on top that takes considerable force to break through... but when you do, throw out a life ring cause your gonna sink fast. Also remided me of what happens when someone breaks through the ice on a frozen lake.

WOW 100 post and 15000 views. Cliff, your sacrifice of pride by displaying these photos and telling the story has paid dividens in the education of others about potential dangers. I commend you for posting these and want you to know that you should be proud that you touched so many people with your thread.

 

Tims Truck Service responded:

That makes for a Super bad Week !!! Thanks for Posting the Pics. ..... It gives us all Something to Think about & gives us all a new Perspective before taking a Piece of Equipment off Road again......TIM

 

DJ The Tow God responded:

I show this to the boss anytime we have an incident. He then begins to realize that his problems aren't quite that bad. Just imagine the actual cost of recovering those trucks. Then add to that the repairs and cost of recertifying everything. Really puts things into perspective.

 

Brian Bell responded:

LOL  I guess it could always be worse... The " Incident Plan" TouTube video has views in the millions.

 

This topic was Bumped last in 2017 and was one of the most viewed topics on the old message board system.

[GRUMPS The Towman]

MY GOD !!!! What a mess..... That was the definition of freak of nature.... It appears to be down in a valley with maybe heavy storms at the higher elevations which of course would raise the water table.. Just guessing... But from looking at the first picture of the road, I would have drove right on in too.. It swallowed everything like quick sand... Amazing 

[yoBdaBenO]

Wow, first time I have seen something like this. Our policy is not to take our truck off the roadway. This was a roadway and we would not have even thought about walking it. As stated what good would it have done to walk it and who would have thought there were more than one high water table to sink into. I'd like to know how the companies in their area have changed their approach to these recoveries. Since this obviously was not a one time weather event.

[rreschran]

Year's back, one of our drivers took a loaded 4700 IH carrier and his the customer, and attempted to drive around a huge mud-puddle that was on a rural road liking two sprawling communities. The carrier didn't get far sinking to the axles. This was after a So. California El Nino storm. Antoehr driver went to help and he too got stuck. We ultimately couldn't pull it out with four other trucks plus a tripple shocked, 390 Ford, 4x4, with Monster Mudder tires. Many hours later, we gave up as our efforts were futile. After the driver spent a very cold overnight in the carrier, we found a D9 on a closeby construction site the next day and offered him a case of Pepsi to pull the truck out. You can be sure that the company's, "driving off pavement", policy was firmly revamped.     R. 

[GRUMPS The Towman]

I still am astounded by this situation. I have shown it to other guys starting with the first pic and I ask if they would drive on it. Of course like myself they are all like "yeah sure " and then their jaws drop when they see the carnage pics. Crazy!!!! 

[mushspeed]

I feel for those guys .....they were having the sort of day when they wished they had stayed in bed....

 

We had a similar situation on a nature reserve about 2 miles down a narrow 8 foot wide track ...  a tracked peat cutter got bogged ...bigtime....we sent a 6x4  winch truck out  ...that slipped off the road and got stuck ...we sent out an 8x4  truck to winch out our truck ... after reversing down the track for about a mile....the side of the track gave way and our truck slipped down the embankment into the ditch at a  45 degree angle ...

Result ...2 heavy recovery trucks and a peat cutter seriously bogged !!!!      8ft wide track,  a deep water filled ditch both sides .....no Holmes trees anywhere to be had ....sucks ...!!!

We dispatched a 3rd winch  truck  and after several hours,  a lot of  winching, re rigging, winching and more re rigging we got the 8x4  truck out ....but the road was so badly collapsed and  waterlogged,  we could not get any where near our other truck or the peat cutter ....by this time it was about midnight ....

The road had to be repaired first ....

Next morning we arranged for  60 tons of  crushed concrete to be delivered to the entrance of the road  ....it was too risky to tip at the site because of the un evenness of the track  so the material was taken  consisting of about  40 loads  in a dumper truck and backhoe about a mile to repair the track so we could get to  retrieve the other vehicles ....

We used the back hoe as a dead man  to self retrieve our other truck  and then rigged with about  1,000 foot of extension cables to get the peat cutter out ..

Time at the job  .....2 and a half days ....very stressful ... 

One of those jobs that no matter what we did... it went wrong....but the professionalism of our guys shone through in the end  ....and apart from a burst power steering pipe on one truck ...no damage ...

[rreschran]

Thanks for sharing your, "job from hell", something evey tow has at one time or another. Be Well John. Best regards.   R.