"changing lanes without slowing down.....'

The importance of proper load securement on flatbed trailers is a hidden hazard that many in our industry are unaware. They are unaware of this hazard because in our opinion the vast majority of incidents occur with independent truckers. Because, aluminum companies who have their own trucks are used to hauling a variety of aluminum products. From billets, slabs, rolls, foundry ingots, extrusions, etc. aluminium company truckers for the most part transport these items safely on a daily basis. But, it is the independent truckers that are need to be educated. Here is a recent incident highlighting the hazard of load securement on flat bed trailers.

Accident in (country name omitted) leaves a trucker injured in (town name omitted)

Paramedics from Civil Protection and Firefighters treated the injured person and transferred him to a hospital, where he was admitted, while authorities were in charge of the investigations of the mishap

When changing lanes without slowing down on the unfinished stretch of (highway name) (town name omitted) the operator of a trailer with a double trailer caused a road accident that, in addition to damage, left another truck driver hurt.

The mishap occurred at kilometer 8.5 of the afore mentioned road in a section that is seven years old, and that from four lanes is reduced to two.

It was reported that the person responsible for the mishap was identified as name omitted, age 48 , who was driving a Freightliner trailer from the (company name omitted), circulating on the lanes from north to south.

At the moment when the lanes were reduced to two, (the driver) forcibly joined those from south to north, and in doing so without slowing down, caused one of the two trailers loaded with aluminum coils he was transporting to tip over.

This caused the rolls to go on top of a Freightliner trailer that went from south to north and was driven by 25-year old (name omitted), who was seriously injured.

Civil Protection paramedics and firefighters treated him and transferred him to a hospital, where he was admitted, while authorities were in charge of the mishap investigations.

We pray that the truck driver recovers fully. From what we can understand is that truck one was pulling two trailers. Atleast, one of those trailers had aluminium coils on it. When truck 1 was driving down a four lane road that was reduced to two. We take that to mean that each direction had one lane. Truck 1 tried to reduce the speed but it was too quickly resulting in the trailer with the aluminum coils to either roll off or tip over. At which time the rolls and/or trailer crossed into the opposing direction and truck 2 hit them. We acknowledge that this is an unsual incident, but we wonder if this would have been different if the aluminum rolls were properly secured.

Please comment.