Chipper hit van kills 3

This make you want to check, recheck, then double check, you chipper connections. I wish they said how it came loose. Very sad to hear, father and two young kids were killed.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06104/682185-54.stm


Mike

Here is a news story on it

Here is a report at the scene.

http://kdka.com/video/[email protected]



Mike

Wow thats awakening!:jawdrop:

jeez!

Terrible for the family of those who lost their lives. I do feel, however, the need to also send my condolences to the person that thought they hitched that chipper on properly, how must they feel knowing they cost 3 people their lives? If nothing else I will be double checking my trailers from now on and I'm sure I am not alone. R.I.P

What a terrible accident, even worse the fact that it could have been prevented. I was taught to cross the chains in an X manner from the chipper to the truck. I had a Whisper come off when I was driving through an intersection, no big deal, the wire plug was smashed, that was all. I often wonder when I see semis on the road if the driver has checked the load, makes you think. Also buddy with the boat tied down on top of his suv and so on. When I get firewood with my pickup I chain it down with good 3/8 chain and a load binder, or two. Doesn't take much to secure a load, well worth the effort.

Food for thought- I will re check my connections in the future. I do pity the person that attached the chipper-he/she has to live with that the rest of a life.

a workmate of mine lost his chipper connection recently,it was hooked up fine,the weld broke where the pintle hitch plate was welded to the steel tubing. lucky for him he was doing a job which required a full closed lane of traffic and flaggers, he had just pulled into the closed lane and was going maybe 5 or 6 mph when it happened. Even at this low speed when the tongue of the chipper hit the crossed safety chains and travelled maybe ten or fifteen feet before he stopped inspection revealed that the trauma of that alone nearly cut a link of heavy duty chain. If he had been on the highway I don't believe those chains would have held. so don't just check the obvious in your chipper connections, check the welds etc. regularly. Keeping the hitch clean would have revealed the faulty weld in this hitch before this accident occured. He was very lucky. my condolences to all invoved in this horrible accident

trailers a serious danger

Several years ago in Central Oregon we had a guy hauling a load of firewood in a horse trailer that was not using safety chains nor a break away brake system. Both are requirements by law, (over 1500 GTWR for the brake system).
His trailer ball was in bad shape and the trailer separated from the truck. The horse trailer that was full of firewood hit and killed a woman traveling the other way.
She was worked on by medical personnel in a local ER desperately for almost an hour. This was the same ER that she had just left work from a few minutes before. Her injuries were so bad that they did not realize they were working on their friend and nurse co-worker for a long time.

No excuses. Inspect and maintain your trailer with dedication.

There are no excuses. None uf us should EVER jump into our equipment without doing a walkaround. If you dont you are asking for just such an incident to happen. Then a bunch of people can cluck their tounges and talk about the tragedy. Get it together people, seemingly pain in the rear things like a vehicle walk around prevent this type of situation. Carelessness KILLS.

Tragic, and no excuse. A trailer or attachment to a towed apparatus MUST BE CIRCLE CHECKED, PERIOD!

And those auto-electric brake devices are a last ditch effort at best. If your chipper became that unhitched, you haven't checked and maintained your hook-up.

I worked for Davy Tree for one year to the day, before i quit. In that year they TWICE had chippers go off on their own, detatched and uncontrolled. They got lucky both times, the worst was damage to an unoccupied, parked car, the other went into a ditch on the side of a highway.

It was treated like a big joke.

Davy's hiring in Victoria right now, think twice before working for these hacks.


RedlneIt

All the equipment we use everyday is deadly. Keep it all in check..

that happened up the road a piece from me. TNTtreeman is even closer.
scuttlebutt around here is that the chipper was not hooked up properly, safety chains may not have been used

another thing to think about, on older vehicles, is that your hitch connection will become so rusty/corroded that it will break free from the vehicle.
a plumbing outfit here hooked their lowboy with a backhoe on the truck hitch and took off in their parking lot. left the hitch with the trailer. I got to see the hitch at the auto shop

I was involved in an accident back in 1999. I was towing a large Rayco stump grinder when a 16 yr old girl who had her license 3 days pulled out in front of me. I could not avoid striking her with my 1 ton truck. The stump grinder rolled three times but remained connected to my truck by the chains. The pintle hook broke but the chains did their job. Thank god no one was seriously hurt. It very well could have been very ugly!
I feel sorry for everyone involved in this accident and I pray for them.

That's terrible accident. We had a worn out pintle give way once, and the chains did their job of keeping the chipper where it belonged. This happened at highway speed. Chains work!

If the chipper was in the same condition as the rest of the equipment I saw in the shot of his yard, I would feel that mainentance might have been neglected a bit.

Another thing, maybe it's just me, but is one of the hitches in the video, the first one he points out juryrigged with a T-wrench for a pin?

Man that is terrible. I once forgot to latch my hitch on a trailer. I bumped off crossing railroad tracks. The break away breaks and back up chains kept other cars and myself safe. I nearly craped my pants when it happened too. It was a scary lesson for me. I feel bad for the guy who might have forgot to connect his stuff correct. Sad.

This happened about 10 miles from where I grew up. My parents filled me in on the accident before I read about it. Turns out the kids were 4 year old triplets and only one of them made it out alive. Its not that hard to check your equipment before you leave. We always did it as we were blowing off the site and when your sticking rakes and what not in the back of the truck. The whole community is mourning for these kids and their family now because someone didn't take 30 seconds to look at the hookup. Its a shame.

Anyone know what actually was the cause? Hitch not latched did it break?

I’ve been onsite for a few cases of “lost trailer”. One moment your riding along all hunkie dorie; attention split between the road, traffic, neat trees, and pretty girls. The next minute some tailgating jerk is trying to pass you on a double line corner… Hey!!! HOLY SGHIT, THAT’S THE CHIPPER! Relax, slowly apply the brakes, do not try to pull over yet, flashers on. ‘KRAATHUNK’ chipper smacks into the back of the truck, OK, slow down to a stop. Now pull off to the side, using the chains to pull the chipper. Right, lets go see how bad it is…

That particular scenario was caused not by a failure to completely attach the chipper, but because the lunet ring was worn down to the point where it managed to slip out of a closed pintle hook. Now this may scream “poor maintenance”, or inattentiveness, but when veiwed from above the lunet ring looked fine, it wasn’t until you got underneath of it that you could really see how badly worn it was.

Runaway Chipper

First of all, most chippers are too heavy for chains to hold them. Chippers over a certain weight should have brakes. Also breakaway brakes. The chipper in question was found to be stolen from the Knickerbocker company located along the Parkway West. We have a responsibility to maintain our equipment and be vigilant when we travel with it. This unfortunate accident is the result of not being responsible. Think it always happens to the other guy? Think again.

Man with Chipper Charged With Vehicular Homicide

Man with Wood-Chipper Charged With Vehicular Homicide


Created: 5/4/2006 7:48:10 PM
Updated: 5/5/2006 7:23:29 AM


PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Murder charges were filed Thursday against a man whose runaway wood-chipper went speeding down a Pennsylvania highway last month, killing a father and two children.

Bradley Demitras was charged with three counts of homicide by vehicle and three counts of involuntary manslaughter. Authorities say he was speeding and had drugs in his system the day he loaded a wood-chipper onto his truck without checking the trailer connection and safety equipment. :deadhorse:

Prosecutors say the three-ton machine got loose, and was traveling about 70 miles-per-hour when it hit Spencer Morrison's van heading in the opposite direction. Morrison and two of his
four-year-old triplets were killed.

The third child remains in critical condition with head, face and leg injuries.



AP