" It happened (on) the road that leads to the cemetery...."

Out of all the hazards in our industry improper securement of loads injures and kills more people who are not associated with our industry. Adults, men, women, and children have been injured and killed because of improper load securement. Here is an incident from last year highlight this hazard.

Some inconvenience, but fortunately no other damage to people or things due to the fall of some aluminum poles from a truck . It happened in Italy , the road that leads to the cemetery.

The driver of the truck, from a (local) company, headed to (a town 10 km away) or the delivery of the transported material, found something anomalous and immediately blocked his journey. When he got out of the vehicle, he immediately realized that about fifteen metal antennas (aluminium billets) 7 meters long had fallen on the asphalt .

The mayor of the town, the carabinieri and the local police arrived on the spot to ascertain what happened and regulate the traffic that was never interrupted.

The poles that were temporarily placed in the parking lot of the mechanical processing company (company name omitted), located not far away, were immediately cleared . Here they remained until the recovery of the Venetian company by another vehicle which then proceeded to deliver it to the recipient company.

We are glad no one was injured or killed in this incident. We do not know how the material was strapped. We do know that it was not properly secure. We have seen in numerous incidents that the amount of distance a finished product has to travel affects the amount of securement. Which is wrong. No matter if the load is traveling 1 kilometer across town versus 100 kilometers across the country. Proper load securement has to be accomplished.

We are haunted by past incidents we report about. Though we have never met the injured or deceased we can not forget their stories. One in particular made us weep more than the others. It was the story of young girl traveling with her siblings in the cab of a truck her mum was driving. The truck was hauling a rolling ingot. The load was improperly secured. During the accident the load slid forward knocking the cab off the truck. The child was thrown out and died on a highway. This particular incident haunts us because of the innocent child. But, these incidents occur with some regularity around the globe. Thankfully, many do not result in an injury like the incident above. But, every incident of improper load securement could result in an injury or death.

This hazard is worsened by the increase use of independent truckers around the globe. These individuals are not less safe per se other truckers. But, they lack experience hauling our products. That lack of experience can result in a greater likelihood of an incident occurring. We recommend that all aluminium companies inspect loads that depart their plants. It is not a question of legal liability on doing this. It is a question of moral responsibility.

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