October 2009

A valuable lesson for all tipper truck drivers can be learnt from this accident which happened on October 10th in the Germiston area on the Heidelberg road at the N3 South off-ramp.

As the photographs show, this Mercedes Benz Axor tipper truck collided with a bridge and although at the time of writing a full investigation into the actual cause of the accident was being conducted by the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Accident Reconstruction Unit, preliminary investigations showed that the truck’s tipper bin was left opened/ ejected while in motion before it crashed into the concrete bridge and got stuck underneath. There was no report of another vehicle involved at the time.

The 60-year old male truck driver - who was alone in the vehicle - was taken to the Union hospital for treatment for minor injuries. The Heidelberg road towards Leondale from the N3 South off-ramp was closed to traffic for three hours due to recovery and formalities performed by the emergency personnel. So to all you operators running tippers, please instruct your drivers to ensure that the tipping bin is down before heading off on the road. If not, your truck could be left hanging around for a while.

5Costly lesson: Ensure the tipper bin is down before d riving off. (Photographs compliments of Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department).