Transportation disasters

[alisonb]

On Saturday I noticed someone in the distance herding an animal to wards my place, was a bit strange. Anyway they eventually arrived and it turned out to be a neighbors son herding their bull, his father had been transporting the bull to their other farm when the truck hit a dip and the bull's weight hit against the railings, railings gave way and bull jumped off truck injuring his front leg slightly. Father had in the mean time gone home to get the other truck whilst son herded bull to my place to use loading ramp. It could have been a far worse accident, they were lucky.

This got me thinking of the time that I was traveling on the hi way behind an old cattle truck when the back gate of the truck swung open. I could not overtake that truck any faster :shock:, imagined trying to dodge flying cattle, anyway warned driver and a sure disaster was averted.

I've been fortunate enough to have never had an accident(touch wood). How about the rest of you, any tales to tell?

 

[ohiosteve]

Not a disaster but funny, I hauled three old cars to the scrapyard for my neighbor. Loaded them up the night before two on the bottom one on top. They sat in my driveway overnight and I took them in the next morning. The man at the scrapyard was laughing when I pulled in because there was a chicken sitting on the steering wheel of one of the cars. He said I got the hillbilly of the year award. Gertrude rode back home in a cardboard box.

 

[slick4591]

I was with the FFA kids coming back from a late show and we stopped at a truck stop to eat. Someone thought it would be funny to let all the pigs loose in the parking lot. Luckily, most all had been worked with well enough that we were able to reload without too much of a problem. It wasn't a disaster, but it sure wasn't funny. You'll find locks on all my trailer gates now.

 

[Dave]

A year or two ago I was headed in to town in my car. About a half mile down the road a stocker trailer pulled out ahead of me. Something didn't look right on the back of the trailer. As we went down the road I was gaining on the trailer. About 3 miles later at a stop sign I realized the slider door on the trailer was coming open. About a mile after that at the second stop sign I was able to catch up to the trailer. By that time a 600 pound black whiteface steer was standing in the door looking at me. I zoomed up alongside the truck, horn honking and lights flashing, before she could pull away from the stop sign. Turned out I know the driver she is a custom hauler. She said the farmer closed the door but must not have latched it correctly. Luckily nobody got out but I am sure they were thinking about it.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

This is actually my sister's story. She was hauling 3 hogs in a stock trailer; got up to the highway from their little county road and did her usual Calif. stop (when they moved out there, the neighbors told them NOBODY ever stops at that sign!). Then the lights come on behind her, so she pulled over. Cop was nice, but did ticket her despite her "but, the neighbors said . . . " claims. Then he said to her, "Do you know what you're supposed to have in that trailer?" And Julie said, "Yeah, 3 pigs." And the cop said, "Well, they're still in there, ma'am, but you may want to get out and close your trailer door!"

 

[TexasBred]

Never had a problem transporting animals but did have my bass boat pass me on the highway one day. Needless to say it ended up totalled.

 

[hurleyjd]

One morning several years ago when I was commuting to work this happened. Two fisherman pulling their bass boat hit a burro the burro was small and went over the truck and landed in the trailer. Of course the burro was dead and to big for the fisherman to remove. I went on to work chuckling all of the way.

 

[john250]

I hired the neighbor to haul before I got my own trailer&truck. I was crazy to hire him with his rusty old trailer, but he was hard working and on time. My cattle at that time might be kindly desribed as "bat excrement crazy".
On the way to the old Bourbon Stockyard in Louisville the hauler had a mishap, resulting in the escape of two 600 lb. steers into the environs of Jeffersonville, IN. (across the Ohio river from Louisville). The cops shot them down like dogs. I collected insurance. I only wish I could have witnessed the confrontation.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

Do you remember this great news story about Black & Gus getting loose on the beltway in Washington D.C.? Short, but sweet. Our Angus butcher steers that year were named Black & Gus. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anKhwRz31lQ

 

[kenny thomas]

Stopped at a stop light one night and 10 -800 lb bull calves got off. The sliding door had opened.

 

[MO_cows]

My mom had one escape while being unloaded at the meat locker, which was right in the middle of town. Her brother in law didn't back the trailer up tight enough to their gate. I guess they chased him all over and finally he hit the edge of town and found some cattle on the other side of a fence and started grazing. They got him back in the trailer with some extra help and panels, took him back to the plant. The meat was good, they must have let him get the adrenalin out of his system before they killed him.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

I saw one wreck, that I was never actually involved in (thank you, God), returning from an elk hunting trip, hauling horses, going up a country road. A pickup hauling a 2-horse trailer stopped at a sign, came down hill towards me, and the trailer came off. It went in front of me, then veered off to a phone or power pole, and I was trying to find every way off that road. I got off the road alright. I didn't even want to go look, but you have to (in the day w/ no cell phones). The trailer that hit the pole was EMPTY!

 

[regolith]

NIghtmares... glad I haven't seen all that stuff. I did get the feed trailers jammed over the bike wheel on two separate occasions last year on the farm I was working, after they overtook the bike, and on another occasion was hauling one down a slight slope and saw it veer to the right and overtake the bike and hang up in the fence over the creek... lucky we didn't have to fish it out of the creek. The towball on my bike had snapped going over the bump where the concrete race ended and the stone began.

Last July, had one cow that was milked through the winter on one of the lease farms and trucked to me in the spring. The truck company had left a message with an approximate time of arrival, that time came and went and eventually I called and asked where is she?
It turned out the truck driver had taken a left when he should have taken a right and dropped her off on a farm five kilometers away. By this time I was trying to beat nightfall when I found the farm, found my cow but no one around and started walking her home along the highways. Luckily one of the farm workers saw us pass about a kilometer before we hit the main road and came to help; we got her home with no problems but might not be able to say the same if I'd had to go the full five K alone with her.

 

[Crazy Farmgirl]

Thankfully this didn't hapen to me...my trailer but before I owned it. Guy hauled cattle frequently and never cleaned out the trailer. 20 ft gooseneck hauling 150+ miles loaded to the max, guy can't figure out why everyone is passing and honking and making gestures to pull over. Finally pull off the road to investigate only to find that the floor supports at the front had broke loose and were dragging on the road!! Guy said he about sh!t himself when he saw the legs and feet below the trailer! Luckily none of the cattle were injured. I bought the trailer for scrap price and replaced bottom edge and all new supports and floor.

 

[alisonb]

We have a cattle auction in our area tomorrow and lo and behold what do I see today coming back from town - a trailer loaded full of cattle parked at an angle on the side of the road, no truck in sight, just the trailer so he/she must of unhitched trailer to go and get help. The trailer had a flat tyre. Would you have unhitched trailer or used your cell phone? I think I would phone a garage or a friend to come and help sooner than unhitching, could imagine the whole trailer tipping over :shock:

 

[regolith]

trailers are regularly unhitched full of cattle and left on the side of the road here.
Some of the farm entrances can only handle the truck, not the truck and trailer unit. The farm I'm on has a lopsided track in front of the loading ramp and I've seen trucks make twenty or thirty attempts to back up and then give up and unhook the trailer. When the herd came here the last truck had to do that and empty the truck, then hitch up again, load the trailer cattle onto the truck, unhitch and back in with just the truck again.
And sometimes you need to climb to the top of the nearest hill to use a cellphone.

 

[fatcattle]

Had the welds holding the center of a wheel to the outside rim break on a 32' 3 axle trailing running about 75 down I-40. Tire and rim passed between me and the little car passing me, then hung a hard left, cut that car off. They pulled over and I kept gassing trying to keep the tire in view as it crossed the median and traveled the center line of the oncoming traffic for almost a half mile before turning left again and jumping a six wire fence. So thankful it didn't hit anyone, but it sure had alot of folks pulling over. I dropped cattle off at the sale barn and looked for the tire on the way home. Never did find it. Do a little better inspection before driving off now.

 

[alisonb]

Perhaps I should have mentioned that the trailer was a flimsy little two wheeler, something like this(the railing were not as high though) -

Imagine this trailer with a flat tyre, animals jostling around in it left on the side of a busy public road. If it had a couple more wheels I may have unhitched it :) but who knows, perhaps that person had a reason for doing what he did...

 

[Lawson Farms]

Below is a story about my grandfather. We drove that busted up trailer until just last fall. We got questions and looks from everwhere on what happened to the trailer. story says fighting cows. I suspect he fell asleep. He walked away with just a scratch above his eyebrow. Sure was lucky. Sure was a waste of a good truck too. Highway patrol shot the cows, just a few miles away from packing plant.

http://www.gaffneyledger.com/news/2007- ... e/003.html