Single bike crash - Akaroa Christchurch road 8 Feb 2021

[EB255GTX]

Family and i were in the car, on the way to Akaroa yesterday and were first hand witnesses to a biker being cleaned out by a trailer wheel that came off.

Helped out at the scene and all that, but i downloaded the dash cam footage today and wondered if the bikers (was actually a 2 up) wanted it.

So if it was you or you know them, PM me and i'll share it. I have no reason to think they are on KB, but a quick post is buggerall effort to find out.

[HenryDorsetCase]

Would you not be sending it to the filth as well?

[EB255GTX]

Yep already done - i asked them in the email if i can have the biker's contact deets but no reply, then i thought - wonder if it's a privacy law thing. That's silly enough to be true nowadays...
They might share it with the people, they might not, dunno - quick post to cover the bases.

It's scary to watch, because it could be any one, any time, bike or cage (obviously less harm in a cage). Wheel comes off trailer, and with a huge combination of just the wrong circumstances, it is hidden by the trailer from the oncoming biker until it pops out right in front of their front wheel and down they go.

[onearmedbandit]

Good work. I do wonder if that would come under 'single vehicle' crash stats.

[EB255GTX]

Yeah stats can be as useless or useful as you want them to be - "single vehicle crash" to most people implies fault is yours or it was a medical event or your vehicle had a fault or similar....

[FJRider]

Good work. I do wonder if that would come under 'single vehicle' crash stats.

Single vehicle crash is no other vehicle (or part thereof) involved.

If something falls of a trailer and another vehicle hits it ... where would (you hope) the fault lay ... with the driver towing the trailer or the vehicle that hit the "Something" ... :scratch:

[Autech]

Family and i were in the car, on the way to Akaroa yesterday and were first hand witnesses to a biker being cleaned out by a trailer wheel that came off.

Helped out at the scene and all that, but i downloaded the dash cam footage today and wondered if the bikers (was actually a 2 up) wanted it.

So if it was you or you know them, PM me and i'll share it. I have no reason to think they are on KB, but a quick post is buggerall effort to find out.

Fuck how bad is their luck?

Hope you're ok if you're on here, to the prat that didn't do up the trailer wheel :tugger:

[onearmedbandit]

Single vehicle crash is no other vehicle (or part thereof) involved.

If something falls of a trailer and another vehicle hits it ... where would (you hope) the fault lay ... with the driver towing the trailer or the vehicle that hit the "Something" ... :scratch:

That's what i was thinking.

[rastuscat]

A tyre came off a tandem trailer at the end of the Motukarara Straight a few years ago. Right hand side wheel. Heading from Little River to Tai Tapu. Came along the straight, the wheel left it's hub as the towing vehicle started to go around the bend at the end of the straight.

It bounced away, and straight through the window of the cafe on the bend (Blue Duck?).

Bloody lucky there wasn't anyone at that particular spot in the cafe, it would have been a fatality.

[Autech]

A tyre came off a tandem trailer at the end of the Motukarara Straight a few years ago. Right hand side wheel. Heading from Little River to Tai Tapu. Came along the straight, the wheel left it's hub as the towing vehicle started to go around the bend at the end of the straight.

It bounced away, and straight through the window of the cafe on the bend (Blue Duck?).

Bloody lucky there wasn't anyone at that particular spot in the cafe, it would have been a fatality.

I had some corrugated iron lying on the road get lifted up at me once by the slipstream of a truck. I thought it was game over for me but it veered down last second and hit my front wheel. That would not have been a nice accident scene to attend.

This is why I am so anal securing loads to my trailer, lives depend on it.

[rastuscat]

I had some corrugated iron lying on the road get lifted up at me once by the slipstream of a truck. I thought it was game over for me but it veered down last second and hit my front wheel. That would not have been a nice accident scene to attend.

This is why I am so anal securing loads to my trailer, lives depend on it.

Same, actually. A doctor lost a mattress off a trailer on Dyers Pass Road a few years back. Cleaned out a cyclist with life changing injuries.

It's worth the extra time it takes to check load security.

[Kickaha]

Must be something about that road, a few years ago I was following a car towing a trailer heading towards Chch about 4-5 km west of Little River when the left trailer wheel parted company and fucked off into the shrubbery

[HenryDorsetCase]

I was on the motorway in Wellington going from town out the Hutt. In the right lane on the motorway. Some shitbox car (Morrie Minor?) going from the Hutt to town - opposite direction in the slow lane lost a wheel with axle attached which bounced across the other lane, over the median barrier, through my lane about 10ft in front of my front wheel and then across the other lane of traffic into the ditch on the opposite side. So three lanes of traffic and a median barrier. Didnt hit anyone.....

[ellipsis]

...if you observe some of the trailers that are on the road...old shitters that look like they are going to lose their wooden componentry at the next bump in the road or one of their old chev or morris wheels that have been spinning for 59 years and haven't yet fallen off...bearings ungreased since last time, 10 years back... :blink:


...modern things are also suspect...boat trailers that don't get the proper treatment after sucking salt water...a wheel left a tandem trailer with a biggish boat on at Prices Valley not more than a few short ks from where this latest wheel incident happened...the wheel came towards the little honda civic we were in and I really thought, 'ah fuck, killed by an errant wheel'...it was a bouncing bomb and it was going to come through the windscreen, but it just knicked the top of the front edge of the bonnet and that was enough to propel it over the wee car...

...the wheel studs had all given way to the elements and it's eventualities, my friend Gary and I noted while we stopped to have a bit of post traumatic nicotene...

[pete376403]

A while back trailers from Chine that were being sold by Mitre10 (?) were shearing stub axles because there was no radius at the step where the axle was reduced for the inner wheel bearing. It's not just old trailers that have issues

[EB255GTX]

Maybe it'll be OK to upload the footage in a few weeks or more, as education or summat.

Regarding the trailer condition and so on, all i can say is the general condition looked OK, it wasn't an old shitter or a homebuilt - the boat looked expensive (i may not have mentoned it was a boat trailer) but the talk about salt water and so on might make sense.
Note the trailer driver immediately ran to the scene and throughout the followup was naturally very upset and made no attempt to blame anyone but himself. It could be nothing to do with him or maintenance or anything, poor bugger.

[R650R]

Single vehicle crash is no other vehicle (or part thereof) involved.

If something falls of a trailer and another vehicle hits it ... where would (you hope) the fault lay ... with the driver towing the trailer or the vehicle that hit the "Something" ... :scratch:

There was a high profile case few years ago where someone’s departed trailer killed someone. Apparently due to legal vagaries the driver got away scot free as they were not “towing” or in control of the trailer FFS!!!

Pisses me off even more that there have been displays of these type of events on highway cops tv show and the cops are super nice to the offender like it’s no big deal hence why no one gives a damn. In my truck I would be guaranteed to see at least one boat trailer or caravan at roadside start of holiday weekends with a lost wheel... happens too often.

Entirely the fault of the owner for not pre trip inspecting or doing maintainance and completely unacceptable.

[FJRider]

Maybe it'll be OK to upload the footage in a few weeks or more, as education or summat.

Regarding the trailer condition and so on, all i can say is the general condition looked OK, it wasn't an old shitter or a homebuilt - the boat looked expensive (i may not have mentoned it was a boat trailer) but the talk about salt water and so on might make sense.
Note the trailer driver immediately ran to the scene and throughout the followup was naturally very upset and made no attempt to blame anyone but himself. It could be nothing to do with him or maintenance or anything, poor bugger.

The thing about boat trailers ... both the flash ones and the home built ones ... BOTH types have their wheel bearings submersed in water while the bearings are still warm. When they cool the air pressure inside them reduces and water is sucked in. As they heat up again ... a mixture of grease and water is expelled from the bearing. Repeated heating and fast cooling increases the amounts ... and does not do a lot of good to the bearings. Sealed bearings are not immune from this effect forever. I can assure you ... "It DOES get in" ...

[FJRider]

There was a high profile case few years ago where someone’s departed trailer killed someone. Apparently due to legal vagaries the driver got away scot free as they were not “towing” or in control of the trailer FFS!!!

Pisses me off even more that there have been displays of these type of events on highway cops tv show and the cops are super nice to the offender like it’s no big deal hence why no one gives a damn. In my truck I would be guaranteed to see at least one boat trailer or caravan at roadside start of holiday weekends with a lost wheel... happens too often.

Entirely the fault of the owner for not pre trip inspecting or doing maintainance and completely unacceptable.

In my working life on the road ... I would have seen about 20 trailer wheels come off and with varying end results. Some with no other vehicle involved ... and some involving other vehicles. No fatal results ... but some very angry drivers on the receiving end. As you may expect.