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Rider crashes into unsecured load

Unsecured load

This video of an American rider crashing into a load that had fallen off the back of a boat trailer being pulled by an SUV is a lesson in never following vehicles with dodgy looking loads.

Rider Brendan Jankowski, 20, doesn’t seem to be following very closely, but it is close enough for him not to be able to avoid the load of rolled-up foam that falls off. He hits it square on and flips over.

Luckily, he only received minor injuries. Police say they are still looking for the SUV which did not stop at the scene. Obviously the driver was oblivious to the incident.Unsecured load

It’s a good lesson to be aware of trucks and pickups carrying loads secured only by ropes and ties.

It’s not an isolated incident, either.

In Australia, the authorities receive tens of thousands of callouts a year to collect debris from our roads.

It includes household goods, building materials and green waste, causing road closures, disruptions, injuries and deaths.

Most vulnerable to these unsecured loads are motorcyclists.

I once rode on the Ipswich Motorway behind a ute carrying a load of pipes. Suddenly the rope holding them came undone and the load spilt across the roadway. I still don’t know how I managed to ride straight through the middle of it without hitting anything.

I have also witnessed all sorts of things flying off the backs of trucks and pick-ups, but the worst culprits seem to be tradies.

Perhaps they are in a rush to get home or to the next job, but too many don’t secure their loads properly.

Take a look at the side of our freeways. They are littered with tradies’ hard hats, rubber boots, gloves and tools.

Other motorists to avoid are weekend gardeners taking their load to the dump in a hired trailer. They are not professional transport operators, so they don’t know how to secure a load properly. Give them a wide berth.

It’s not as if the police and authorities don’t care about unsecured loads.Unsecured load police

Police frequently blitz for unsecured loads and the fines range from several hundred dollars to several thousand, depending on the risk level of the spilt load.

However, a fine won’t help a rider recovering in hospital from hitting a loose load.

Instead, it’s our responsibility to stay away from any vehicle with a loose load.

And if you see a dangerous load, report it to the police.

  1. I was pulled up at a roundabout once when
    the 4wd coming up behind braked hard and
    lost a load of steel rods .The only thing that
    saved me was, as soon as i heard the sound of
    tyres biting and sliding steel i took off, narrowly
    avoiding becoming a human kebab.
    The steel speared into the road where i had been
    moments before. Headphones ? Never

  2. I followed a bike trailer once where I bonused a fuel container full of fuel that glided nicely off the back of the three rail wheel trailer and landed off the edge of the road where I stopped and picked it up. If it was yours, I flashed my lights at you as it slid out slowly, but surely, but you kept travelling forth. Always alert. Thanks.

  3. If not for witnesses and the dashcam this accident like many others would have been classified as rider error I’m sure.
    There are numerous supposed single vehicle motorcycle accidents where the obvious conclusion was rider error or hooning that in reality were far from it.
    It would be easy to imagine that roll of foam rolling off somewhere hidden and the police believing that the rider was doing wheelies and came a cropper as they write out their report for the coroner. I was nearly knocked off my bike by either a large black bird or a Wellington boot that descended from the sky.

  4. I watched this a couple of times and it looks like the rider was caught off guard at just the wrong moment. He was either in the process of changing lanes when it happened or choose the wrong direction to try an avoid it. It appears he tried to accelerate and go round it but wasn’t quick enough. If he had braked and gone left the video may not have even made it to YouTube. But from an armchair we all know better.

  5. Regardless of what he was wearing, stupid shit, by stupid road users. There should be a seperate test and code on car licenses before they are allowed to tow anything behind them. Car licenses should be graded like bikes, no cars bigger than a 2L 4cylinder, unless you can do an open class license in an open class vehicle with the same restrictions. (0 BAC, no passengers, 12 months upon getting license) It was good enough for bikers to do a car license, bike license, re-class (12months restrictions) go again and do an r-class, on an appropriate machine (12 more months) all the while paying top $$$ and fighting for an opening at an approved riding school (ask some learners about booking periods and wait times). Screw car drivers. Give the the same scrutiny we go through, just to get our opens and watch the amount of drivers give up, or fail. There goes half your congestion problem.

    1. In some countries the cost of getting a license is more than some would pay for their first car! I may be wrong but I think Germany Japan and Singapore are some of those places and some of them even have similar restrictions or grades to the licenses. I wonder what the road fatality statistics are like by comparison with each other as I think Japan and Singapore have a similar speed kills mentally to Australia.

  6. Ladders, I’ve avoided 3 on the eastern freeway Melbourne. Never follow a vehicle with a ladder on the roof !!!

    1. Yep. Ladders. One on M5 Sydney, once on GWH Blue Mts. I avoid riding behind tradies whenever I can because they are the worst for not securing loads.

    1. Read what was said at Motodna and I have to say I don’t agree with their assessment of what happened.
      Without asking the rider what he was doing at the time assuming he was tailgating and that he was fixated on the target is a mistake. to me it looked as he was caught just at the wrong time during a lane change, his body position lane position and reactions all point to the thing falling off just at the point he was checking his mirrors and about to make the move to the other lane possibly to get away from the boat trailer.
      Shorts and runners are definitely not ideal riding gear but jeans and some bike boots aren’t much better and maybe even worse on a really hot day.

  7. I was taught if something falls off a vehicle to head for it by the time you get there its gone.

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