"Rescuers have to reload 23 tons of aluminum..."

Proper load securement of finished products on flatbed trucks has become a motivation for us here at the Aluminium Plant Safety Blog. We simply cannot forget the lives that are lost because of poor load securement. Here is an incident that could have resulted in an injury or fatality. But it didn’t. These are the incidents that we are so happy to write about. No tears of sadness! Just watery eyes filled with joy. Here is the story.

Outside of Munich Germany, on or around April 7^th, 2021.

When an overtaking truck cut in again, the driver (name omitted) steered his heavy vehicle to the right and hit the shoulder of the road.

The truck loaded with 23 tons of aluminum bars hit the soft shoulder of the road. The driver didn't stand a chance. The semi-trailer was pulled to the right of the road and fell into a drainage ditch next to the highway.

 

The driver had previously loaded the aluminum in Austria only 75 kilometers away. It was to be brought to northern Germany for aluminum refinement.

 

Muscle strength was required for the rescue workers: They had to reload the 23 tons of aluminum by hand. 3 hours of sweaty work.

During the recovery, the weather changed to heavy snowfall and then back to sunshine - this made it difficult to use the crane.

 

The driver was very lucky, he was only slightly injured. The truck suffered total damage of at least € 100,000.

We hope that the trucker recovers from any of his injuries. We commend the trucker for the proper securement of the load. If the trucker did not properly secure the load it would have moved during the accident. We have posted many incidents where improper load securement resulted in the trucker being injured or killed. Worse yet is when a passenger or nearby motorist is injured or killed. 

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