What can be done about diesel spills? Rider crashed 3/07/16 on Takas

[MD]

I don't know the answer. That's why I'm posting the question. So many riders have come off over recent years on Rimutaka Hill alone due to spills. I'm sure other bike popular hills are equally high risk. Or are they? Is it something peculiar to that hill that attracts a certain type of truck and campervan driver. Dicks that insist on filling their tank to the brim and not fastening the cap. I don't think some even bother having a fuel cap.

Unfortunately today we came across another rider down and I see on Stuff it was a serious leg injury. V-Rod rider dumped in tight left hander coming up from Feathers and went over the Armco. Westpac Rescue Chopper was quick on the scene.

Stuff said it was possibly a car vs bike incident. Nope, we were there minutes after it happened. I mean no disrespect to the hurt Rider but the cause was clear as, well a dark, wet, smelly diesel spill freshly running off the camber. Once the cops arrived I went to pull alongside one and ask that they set up a cordon on the Welly side and check every truck/camper for signs of spilling, but the Cop I went to approach gave me the evil stare and wave to keep moving. I'm sure the culprit couldn't have been far ahead.

From the very first corner the trail of fresh spill was obvious and pretty much was on every left and right hander. Sadly for the hurt rider he crashed on the last corner with a spill. After that it was clear for the rest of the journey. Once you know it's going to be there it's not that hard to continue at a decent pace, just allowing yourself plenty of vision through approaching bends to pick your line left or right of the diesel trail - which today being fresh was quite visible long before reaching it.

But back to my opening point. There must be stats showing that that hill is exceptionally high in bike crashes caused by other vehicle spills - diesel or stock effluent. There should be enough evidence to warrant random blitzes checking on trucks & vans.

These stats work against us, making bikes look at fault for having so many crashes.

Best wishes to the Rider for a quick recovery.

[FastR1Red]

Thats not good news. One road here in Aus is identical. So many caravaners use it and trucks as well being one of the back roads out of the city. Everyone complains, nothing ever gets done.
Staying more observant for spills at the beginning of the twisties is the go.


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[OddDuck]

Yeah, I've had someone riding with me go down on the Taka's because of a diesel spill.

It's just a shit design in the way that the tanks have a short filling spout mounted at 45 degrees on a tank edge. Unless they have a perfectly sealing fill cap it's inevitable that diesel will slosh out on a corner.

Effective change means that moron-proof design would be needed, unfortunately the format seems pretty well set.

[R650R]

One thing I got taught years ago was to be alert on the first proper bend leaving a town. If its going to be spilt anywhere it will be there, near the refuelling point while the tank is full to the brim.
Aside from that anything enforcement wise is ambulance at the bottom of the cliff stuff. A road like the rimutakas will be in the thousands per day of journeys by vehicles with external fuel tanks, only takes one to create a spill.
Its not just fuel tanks though, awhile back an experienced rider was killed and others injured up here due to an unknown forestry contractor/farmer/who knows losing a four litre oil container off the back of their ute or trailer...
All we can do is exercise care until the doom of electric vehicles arrives.....

[RGVforme]

"From the very first corner the trail of fresh spill was obvious and was on every left and right hander....Sadly the rider crashed on the last corner with a spill".

Bit of a hole in the "Put a cap on the fuel tank Mr truckie" safety campaign there in afraid.

You and other riders that day made it to where the crash was at the end of the spill trail.....He didn't.
Diesels still there....Many more road users will prob roll right over it cars and bikes.

Theres your answer......Rider error...

Plenty of slippery stuff n corners Fuel Oil Wet leaves ect.Bar from sending crews out at 2am everyday scrubbing the roads clean for our specific use the best we can do is skill up and look for the hazards as you did here and the other rider did not.
(God how much oil and fuel must be spilt on our roads every day)

In a perfect world yes but Errrrrrrrr Nahhhhh.

[ellipsis]

... very little...in answer to the question...

[Hugo Nougo]

Not just bikes having trouble on the hill today
www.flickr.com/photos/57931034@N03/?

[jellywrestler]

i was heading over one friday of the long weekend from featherston side, smelt diesel, caught up to the vehicle that had no cap on and tried my best to stop it, couldn't so stopped at the summit and rang star triple five even with the number plate, drove back to the hutt and never saw a single cop, i pleaded with them and said it wasn't just a drop of deisel.
one thing riders need to think of is if they smell diesel think deisel, same with if they hear the tinker of stones on their bikes, it's likely it's been carried from ahead of them and could be a lot worse round the corner, a lot of riders are oblivious to those two warnings.

[roogazza]

i was heading over one friday of the long weekend from featherston side, smelt diesel, caught up to the vehicle that had no cap on and tried my best to stop it, couldn't so stopped at the summit and rang star triple five even with the number plate, drove back to the hutt and never saw a single cop, i pleaded with them and said it wasn't just a drop of deisel.
one thing riders need to think of is if they smell diesel think deisel, same with if they hear the tinker of stones on their bikes, it's likely it's been carried from ahead of them and could be a lot worse round the corner, a lot of riders are oblivious to those two warnings.

Good tip for others there Spyda.
I shudder when I think of how we used to get on over that hill in our youth,the lean angle and the speed.
I guess we had eyes out all the time for wet,gravel,sand or fuel spills but still reckon we were just lucky,very lucky.

[old slider]

i was heading over one friday of the long weekend from featherston side, smelt diesel, caught up to the vehicle that had no cap on and tried my best to stop it, couldn't so stopped at the summit and rang star triple five even with the number plate, drove back to the hutt and never saw a single cop, i pleaded with them and said it wasn't just a drop of deisel.
one thing riders need to think of is if they smell diesel think deisel, same with if they hear the tinker of stones on their bikes, it's likely it's been carried from ahead of them and could be a lot worse round the corner, a lot of riders are oblivious to those two warnings.

Thanks for those tips, something else to file away in my safer riding basket.

[Grumph]

In the SI particularly, it's also narrow bridges...I've seen truck fuel tanks creased and leaking after a curving approach to a narrow bridge is misjudged.

Once saw a slick from the Seddon bridge right in to Blenheim.

[RGVforme]

As the words of the legend Uncle Keith Code ring in my head.

"Throttle control" and "Just pick it up the best you can"

[jellywrestler]

In the SI particularly, it's also narrow bridges...I've seen truck fuel tanks creased and leaking after a curving approach to a narrow bridge is misjudged.

Once saw a slick from the Seddon bridge right in to Blenheim.

fuck, never you you'd been that far north, you could've seen the other island from there....

[Ocean1]

Theres your answer......Rider error...

There's no fucking way a low side caused by a diesel spill is rider error.

I've come close to losing it a dozen times over there, and that's knowing full well the scope of the problem. I've followed 5 others going through the last right hander coming down the Hutt side where all six of us stepped out 4", both ends, one after another.

The number of dodgy diesel tanks on the road is amazing, and the 'Takas cops a liberal dousing regularly from trucks filling up at Rimutaka or Featherston.

And the only way you're ever going to fix the problem is to change the COF requirements so that a pressure test is done on every tank.

Like every other bike related safety issue, it's just not going to happen.

[RGVforme]

There's no fucking way a low side caused by a diesel spill is rider error.

I've come close to losing it a dozen times over there, and that's knowing full well the scope of the problem. I've followed 5 others going through the last right hander coming down the Hutt side where all six of us stepped out 4", both ends, one after another.

The number of dodgy diesel tanks on the road is amazing, and the 'Takas cops a liberal dousing regularly from trucks filling up at Rimutaka or Featherston.

And the only way you're ever going to fix the problem is to change the COF requirements so that a pressure test is done on every tank.

Like every other bike related safety issue, not going to happen.

Others made it though according to the OP as did the 5 riders you speak of here.......The difference?......Rider skillset?...Blind luck?.

Rider error...