Posted by Kevin in OK on April 13, 2008 at 16:01:21 from (68.89.251.4):
Thursday, I was borrowing a trailer from my uncle. It's a 16' bumper pull tilt bed trailer, with tandem axles and a 2 5/16" bulldog hitch. I had to follow him to a small shop a few miles away to have the bigger ball mounted. Anyways, on to the reminder part.
Thursday afternoon, its raining pretty steadily. He hops out to hitch up, gets everything hooked up, but, unknowingly, the bolt to hold the hitch closed is skipped. We start going down the highway, him ahead of me by about 70 yards. Nobody is going terribly fast due to the rain, but it is the highway and we are cruising about 50 mph.
I notice the trailer sort of wobble due to the wind, but that doesn't bother me much because it is a tilt bed. But it eventually starts shaking side to side. That's when I know something isn't right. The trailer had come unhitched. Having never seen anything like this in person, and really not knowing what to do, I hang back, as well as most of Oklahoma City's Rush Hour traffic.
The trailer is now shaking from side to side, when the safety chain decides to snap. We are approaching an overpass, and my uncle wants to get this runaway train stopped. The trailer veers to the right into the emergency lane where my uncle attempts to wedge it between the concrete barrier and the truck, but the trailer starts to ride up the barrier, threatening to fall off the overpass and onto the road below. He quickly eases to the left to prevent that.
The trailer is still rolling quickly down the highway, where my uncle tries to hit it again to keep it on the right, out of traffic. Unfortunately, the trailer has now rolled forward past the truck. When he hits the trailer to move it over, the trailer fender snags his right rear tire and blows it out. Since the trailer is ahead of the truck, the hit acts a lot like a PIT maneuver, causing the trailer to do a complete 180.
The trailer is now rolling backwards towards the center median, and the truck has got a blown out tire. The trailer continues on, crosses all three lanes of traffic, and bounces off the center divider. My uncle is trying to follow it to keep the traffic at bay. When the trailer hits the center divider, it bounces off and rolls clear back across the highway and comes to rest in the grass about 100 feet past the edge of the bridge.
Total time: 6 seconds (maybe, it seemed like a lifetime) Total distance: 1000 feet, roughly Total damage: Broken Safety chain, torn wiring, minor sheet metal damage, and a blown tire
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