Caravan Rollover – A Sobering Moment!

Submitted: Wednesday, Apr 26, 2017 at 17:20
ThreadID: 134735 Views:4609 Replies:5 FollowUps:8
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Mrs Landy, myself, and TomO (The Crown Prince) were heading northbound out of Sydney on the Pacific Motorway this morning when we witnessed this accident just north of Karuah and captured it on our dash-cam.

Importantly, both occupants suffered no visible injuries and we extracted them from the vehicle within a few minutes.

As we were pulling up Mrs Landy swung into action and was onto triple-zero for an ambulance and emergency assistance from police and the fire-brigade.

TomO and I assisted by another couple of people managed to get the older couple out quickly, especially as there was leaking fuel.

I am very proud of TomO – only a fortnight ago we were both on Army Cadet Camp where we staged a vehicle accident almost identical to this incident where cadets had to render assistance – today he swung into action as we came to a stop and knew what needed to be done…

Fortunately the couple were walking around and whilst shaken were not physically injured.

But it happens in an instant, it took little more than seconds from highway cruising to being upside down – be careful out there.

Cheers, Baz – The Landy
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Reply By: Tim F3 - Wednesday, Apr 26, 2017 at 18:46

Wednesday, Apr 26, 2017 at 18:46
Glad everyone is ok , but cant really see what happened from the film clip , other than there appears something on the other verge.

Might be my phone.
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Follow Up By: Baz - The Landy - Wednesday, Apr 26, 2017 at 18:55

Wednesday, Apr 26, 2017 at 18:55
A little hard to pick it up. The van started swaying and was out of control within seconds. You can see it (just) as it enters the medium strip.

Baz - The Landy
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Reply By: Member - Phil G (SA) - Wednesday, Apr 26, 2017 at 19:26

Wednesday, Apr 26, 2017 at 19:26
Good video Baz!
They got the sways up going downhill. Divided road, single axle onroad van - looks like it was pulled by a sedan. Any idea what vehicle? Single spare wheel on the back (not overloaded at the rear).
Can't see that these people did much wrong - makes it scary!

Cheers
Phil
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Follow Up By: Stu & "Bob" - Wednesday, Apr 26, 2017 at 20:52

Wednesday, Apr 26, 2017 at 20:52
A very sobering thought indeed, but as always there can be a lot of contributing factors of which we are unaware.

While it doesn't look to be overloaded at the rear, we are unaware of the internal loading of the van, as it could have been a case of the tail wagging the dog.

Anyway, it's good that everybody was ok.
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Follow Up By: Baz - The Landy - Thursday, Apr 27, 2017 at 07:07

Thursday, Apr 27, 2017 at 07:07
Hi Phil

Falcon sedan, older style van

Cheers, Baz
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Reply By: splits - Wednesday, Apr 26, 2017 at 23:55

Wednesday, Apr 26, 2017 at 23:55
The van may have started yawing when hit by wind from the second truck. They appear to be very close together at about 5 seconds into the video.

When that happens, some vans come back into line while others don't. The reasons are very complex but you will find a lot of answers in the first half a dozen or so sites on this page.
VAN STABILITY
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Follow Up By: Baz - The Landy - Thursday, Apr 27, 2017 at 06:32

Thursday, Apr 27, 2017 at 06:32
That is what it looks like to me also

Cheers, Baz
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Follow Up By: Member - bbuzz (NSW) - Thursday, Apr 27, 2017 at 09:49

Thursday, Apr 27, 2017 at 09:49
Possible.
But a close look at the video will show that the truck had passed the van AND was back in the left lane.

So the van would have been weaving for a long time. That doesn't show on the video as it is not in view then.

bill
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Follow Up By: splits - Thursday, Apr 27, 2017 at 22:50

Thursday, Apr 27, 2017 at 22:50
"But a close look at the video will show that the truck had passed the van AND was back in the left lane."
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You may be looking at the wrong truck. The first one leaves the video at 5 seconds into it. The second one does not become clear until about 8 seconds.

You can't identify either the van or the second truck at 5 seconds but if you go to the point where you can see both then go back a second at a time, it looks like they could have been together at around 3 to 5 seconds. .
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Follow Up By: Frank P (NSW) - Thursday, May 04, 2017 at 18:21

Thursday, May 04, 2017 at 18:21
If you look at it frame by frame, I think you can see the sway at about 3 seconds, perhaps influenced by the second truck.
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Reply By: Member - Robyn R4 - Thursday, Apr 27, 2017 at 20:24

Thursday, Apr 27, 2017 at 20:24
I'm glad for them that they walked away and that you didn't have to witness worse than that.
It's amazing, as a rescuer, how adrenalin and instinct kicks in on the spot but it can still rattle you emotionally more than you think afterwards.
They and their family would be as grateful as blazes for your knowledge.
Good on you.

Robyn :)
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Reply By: The Bantam - Friday, Apr 28, 2017 at 13:41

Friday, Apr 28, 2017 at 13:41
Caravan stability continues to be an issue ...... and people will insist that it is fine to push the towing capacity of their vehicles.

as we see a big van will pick up a small car and throw it around like a rag doll.

AND STILL ..... many vans don't have the simplest stability measure ..... shock absorbers.

There is a reason pig trailers ( a trailer with a single central axle group) are very much not favoured in heavy transport ...... because the format is fundamentally unstable ....... as it gets longer and higher the fundamental instability gets worse.

every prospective van owner should watch a string of video's like this ...... maybee they would be a little more conservative in their expectations.

cheers
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Follow Up By: Dean K3 - Thursday, May 04, 2017 at 17:44

Thursday, May 04, 2017 at 17:44
so true amazes me size of some caravans being towed even by some 4wd utes (isuzu bt 50 ranger as example) van towers above them and as its got 3500 towing capacity its all good far as many sales people and potential towers are concerned.

But reality is once law of physics take over gets outta shape pretty quickly. Just on tuesday i was having a cuppa briefly looked outside my window thought thats odd cloud of dust as semi went pass on highway sure enough had ran off road got back on locked up trailer brakes, as result trailer swung right into median strip hitting few trees and flipped trailer as result 7 hours later highway was reopened.

scary part is where it had left highway is exactly where I go to cross highway to walk to shops along the highway
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