Bath Truck driver had only held his license for five days prior to crash..

[Scania]

After very nearly crashing years back on my first day out in a truck having passed my HGV licence, I've always wondered why drivers are not taught how to drive trucks with a heavy load on them, the reasoning is simple, a loaded truck handles very differently and most importantly won't stop anywhere near as quickly as an empty one, I learned this harsh lesson very quickly and thankfully without incident, it's never left me though.

Turns out the 19year old driver of the truck who killed four people after losing control going down a hill in Bath last Monday had only passed less than a week earlier, he would almost certainly have taken his lessons and test in an unladen vehicle and, I'm guessing, discovered a fully loaded truck grossing @32tons can so easily run away from you on a steep hill.

Maybe, finally, the powers that be will realise the inadequacy of HGV training with regard to learning about driving a laden vehicle? Surely, expecting newly qualified drivers to discover the differences between an unladen vehicles handling characteristics and its stopping distances compared to a loaded one out on the highway is dangerous and so clearly deadly!

Somehow, alas, and far too late for all concern in this awful incident,I very much doubt it.

/rant

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...iver-had-only-held-licence-for-five-days.html

 

[geekman]

Surprised the company's insurance would allow someone of that age to drive a vehicle like that.

 

[rodenal]

I think that whilst experience will definitely have played a part in it there is likely to be a bit more to it than that - Landsdown has plenty of places where you could turn and ditch the vehicle if you realised it was becoming uncontrollable.

Even though the driver might not have thought to do this straight away surely even the most inexperienced person will realise that it's better to drive into a field or something solid than career down what is an incredibly steep hill?

What you're saying about the test does sound ridiculous though - why would they not teach with a full load?

 

[Scania]

I think that whilst experience will definitely have played a part in it there has to be a bit more to it than that - Landsdown has plenty of places where you could turn and ditch the vehicle if you realised it was becoming uncontrollable.

Even though the driver might not have thought to do this straight away surely even the most inexperienced person will realise that it's better to drive into a field or something solid than career down what is an incredibly steep hill?

What you're saying about the test does sound ridiculous though - why would they not teach with a full load?

We don't know all the facts, and I'm in no way definitively blaming the driver, but I know only to well experience is everything driving an HGV, and clearly this poor lad had little of the vehicle and next to none of driving it at full weight (for that type of truck) the gap in learning to drive one and actually using it for its intended purpose is huge.

Surprised the company's insurance would allow someone of that age to drive a vehicle like that.

It used to be a minimum age of 21 to drive an HGV, not so these days, I can't say I agree with this aspect either.

 

[Indy500]

I assume he held the Category C licence to be hauling 32 tons? It also looks like he entered the road illegally, although the sign indicating the restriction was damaged.

 

[Josh]

I got my licence at 20 through a HGV Drivers apprenticship scheme.

Had the week long driving course and then test, also had every 6 months a refresher course for 18months. Did me the world of good.

I never drove aside from the tests in box wagons, did vehicle recovery so the dynamics would change drastically but with the company I was with you started with smaller wagons and loads then progressed up.

Seems times have changed. Along with the wages...

 

[Third Opinion]

Interesting.

I have heard before with HGV training some of drivers I spoke too had learned to reverse a HGV with a flat bed trailer. Obviously that gave the visibility that is not there with a box or curtain sided trailer that is most likely what they would end up driving.

I feel very sorry for the victims as well as the driver. From the article it looks like he drove down a road with a width limit yet the warning sign had been knocked down several weeks earlier.

Also very early interviews with witnesses said he was frantically pressing the horn to warn people as the truck came down the hill and he may have tried to hit walls to try and slow the vehicle.

Of course failure of the vehicle may also have been a factor. I feel very sorry for all those involved and their families. A horrendous accident.

 

[Scania]

I assume he held the Category C licence to be hauling 32 tons? It also looks like he entered the road illegally, although the sign indicating the restriction was damaged.

A 32ton rigid tipper would indeed be a class C (formerly HGV class 2) and apparently yes, the road had an HGV restriction.
Again, you could argue that had he had more experience, maybe he'd have thought twice prior to using that road, restriction sign or not, many times I will re route because a road simply doesn't "look right", the kind of thing you only know through experience in this job!

 

[ChrisD.]

Passed my Cat C in 2007 in an unladed truck.

I fully admit I would have no clue how to drive something that's 32 tonnes, yet as far as I know, I'm legally allowed to drive one.

 

[Scania]

Passed my Cat C in 2007 in an unladed truck.

I fully admit I would have no clue how to drive something that's 32 tonnes, yet as far as I know, I'm legally allowed to drive one.

So long as you've passed the recently introduced driver CPC qualification, yes, you are.

 

[Hyburnate]

Someone on trucknet answered why they don't ages ago and I can't remember why Probably due to expense :/

 

[snips86x]

If the rules really are that lapse, they most certainly need to be tightened up. There was talk some time ago about banning new drivers from using motorways until they'd completed x amount of hours general driving experience - not sure where this got too, but you can't let a week old noob into the driving seat of a 32T vehicle.

They need similar laws!

 

[peterwalkley]

Ouch. Given that a typical car is blindingly obviously different with 5 people + luggage compared to just the driver I can only guess at the difference when you scale that up to a fully laden and fully fuelled truck.

I'm sure cost will be part of the problem. You are going to burn more fuel on the lessons and its clearly going to be a faff switching between a laden and unladen trailer when flipping between more experienced learner drivers and completely new ones.

Poor lad will be living with that forever.

 

[MooMoo444]

19 seems really young to be trusted with the responsibility of what is effectively a 32 tonne battering ram. Surely you should have at least 5 years of car driving experience at least before you can even be considered for the test.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Seems insane you can drive something like that with what is at the very most less than 2 years car experience.

 

[snips86x]

19 seems really young to be trusted with the responsibility of what is effectively a 32 tonne battering ram. Surely you should have at least 5 years of car driving experience at least before you can even be considered for the test.

With you on that one!

 

[Hyburnate]

19 seems really young to be trusted with the responsibility of what is effectively a 32 tonne battering ram. Surely you should have at least 5 years of car driving experience at least before you can even be considered for the test.

There's quite a few young HGV drivers out there, this isn't a failure in him it's a failure in the system.

Scania himself said he had troubles.

 

[Simian]

First off - He's been driving very large heavily laden 'Farm' vehicles since he was 12 years old, okay it's on farm land but he has a lot of experience very heavy/large vehicles!

Second - He tried everything to 'ditch' the vehicle, taking out a large number of cars and lamp posts as he did so, and not wanting to hit any properties!, unfortunately modern lamp posts are designed to snap when a car hits them!

Initial investigation shows the breaks failed and actually caught fire! It's looking more like a maintenance failure rather than the driver!!

 

[rodenal]

That's what I was getting at really, it certainly doesn't sound like it was the sole or possibly even primary factor

 

[nutcase]

Like anything like this - it will boil down to several factors that combined to end in tragedy. I feel for the lad - even more so if the brakes did fail and he was powerless to do more than he did.