Had a violent blowout on my near side front tyre this morning, trundling along @ 50MPH, 8AM, heavy rush hour traffic on the A50 heading toward Stoke on Trent.
Suddenly an almighty "Bang!" and my truck , utterly without warning, slews violently into lane #2, my rear view mirrors full of debris, clouds of dust and tyre smoke.
I seem to have just "caught" the rig in time to stop me crossing the central reservation, somehow just knocking my OSF indicator off the truck and - bar tyre explosion - no other damage whatsoever!
As the tyre exploded and I slewed into the outside lane, I was utterly convinced I'd flattened whatever was along side me, thank God and by some miracle at that time of day, nothing was there.
When I finally came to a stop, I remember vaguely sitting in the truck for a few minutes and did not move at all..... Eventually, I think I came to my senses and got out of the truck and went to a Highways agency van that had by chance seen the entire incident and stopped behind me with his beacons on. He assured me I'd hit nothing - and was amazed I had not taken out nor crossed the armco barrier - and told me to get back in the truck.
I think I then chain smoked for about 20minutes - rolling a 'rolly up by hand with trembling hands is not easy,I assure you!
Nearly 12 hours on, my right arm is still shaking if I hold it out as such, strangely, not my left....??
By the time I got recovered back to the Scania dealers in Stoke and eventually back to my depot it was gone 1PM and I've elected to go home and take tomorrow off, I really did not fancy going out in another HGV today after that.
I have been driving HGV's for 14 years, Artics since 2004 and NEVER in that time have I felt so close to what I thought was quite literally it......
I am an EXTREMELY lucky chap and am going to get absolutely blasted tonight!
Apologies for the lousy pictures, my camera phone does not have an anti shake feature........
Lane 1 Closed.....
Normally, you can't see a trucks tyre from this angle, a fair bit of trim is missing here....
Just brushed the barrier enough to pop off my indicator, scuff it slightly, but not actually break it!!!
The underside of my cab, trashed by the exploding tyre, note the kink in the cab chassis (!)
Wrecker driver setting the truck up for a tow...
Truck held level by wooden blocks.
Towbar in place.
Ready to go....
Back at Scania after the recovery.
Air lines from recovery truck to my trailer - the explosion seems to have severed an air line on my HGV as it had lost all of its own air pressure after the accident and did not want to "build it back up" again...
Beware HGV's out there people - what shocked me more than anything was how quickly the truck changed lane and , for a split second or so, there was absolutely sweet NOTHING I could do about it, as I say, thank God nobody was along side me.
Suddenly an almighty "Bang!" and my truck , utterly without warning, slews violently into lane #2, my rear view mirrors full of debris, clouds of dust and tyre smoke.
I seem to have just "caught" the rig in time to stop me crossing the central reservation, somehow just knocking my OSF indicator off the truck and - bar tyre explosion - no other damage whatsoever!
As the tyre exploded and I slewed into the outside lane, I was utterly convinced I'd flattened whatever was along side me, thank God and by some miracle at that time of day, nothing was there.
When I finally came to a stop, I remember vaguely sitting in the truck for a few minutes and did not move at all..... Eventually, I think I came to my senses and got out of the truck and went to a Highways agency van that had by chance seen the entire incident and stopped behind me with his beacons on. He assured me I'd hit nothing - and was amazed I had not taken out nor crossed the armco barrier - and told me to get back in the truck.
I think I then chain smoked for about 20minutes - rolling a 'rolly up by hand with trembling hands is not easy,I assure you!
Nearly 12 hours on, my right arm is still shaking if I hold it out as such, strangely, not my left....??
By the time I got recovered back to the Scania dealers in Stoke and eventually back to my depot it was gone 1PM and I've elected to go home and take tomorrow off, I really did not fancy going out in another HGV today after that.
I have been driving HGV's for 14 years, Artics since 2004 and NEVER in that time have I felt so close to what I thought was quite literally it......
I am an EXTREMELY lucky chap and am going to get absolutely blasted tonight!
Apologies for the lousy pictures, my camera phone does not have an anti shake feature........
Lane 1 Closed.....
Normally, you can't see a trucks tyre from this angle, a fair bit of trim is missing here....
Just brushed the barrier enough to pop off my indicator, scuff it slightly, but not actually break it!!!
The underside of my cab, trashed by the exploding tyre, note the kink in the cab chassis (!)
Wrecker driver setting the truck up for a tow...
Truck held level by wooden blocks.
Towbar in place.
Ready to go....
Back at Scania after the recovery.
Air lines from recovery truck to my trailer - the explosion seems to have severed an air line on my HGV as it had lost all of its own air pressure after the accident and did not want to "build it back up" again...
Beware HGV's out there people - what shocked me more than anything was how quickly the truck changed lane and , for a split second or so, there was absolutely sweet NOTHING I could do about it, as I say, thank God nobody was along side me.
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Your truck is going to need some extensive repairs!