Vehicle failures
When the vehicle’s defect or maintenance explains the accident.
The truck rolled over at 53 km/h. It was not only speed
The case
- A truck tractor with a semi-trailer rolled over on a tight downhill curve of a two-lane highway. The driver died.
- The company filed the tracker report cut short, showing 80 km/h. The full report, two minutes later, showed 53 km/h at the moment of the rollover.
- The truck had a fourth steering axle fitted after leaving the factory, approved at inspection “with remarks”. That axle’s air bags were empty: the wheels were not touching the ground.
- The photos show hoses and components soaked in oil, a sign of poor maintenance. The driver himself reported, in voice messages, faults in the axle and in the vehicle’s weight.
How we helped the client
We showed that the speed-disc reading was wrong: the chart marks 5-minute intervals, and the truck was slowing down. The 80 km/h peak was not the rollover speed.
The braking marks the other side attributed to the truck, 137 m long, would mean 164 km/h. They were marks from other events: the other side’s report records that the truck had ABS, which leaves much fainter marks, and the marks shown had a different pattern.
The method used against the driver applies to a simple curve, not to this compound curve. The lane was 3.30 m wide, below the 3.50 m minimum, with no widening, and the speed sign was hidden.
The speeds in dispute
The curve where it all happened
The event was caused by the unsafe condition of the road and by mechanical problems in the vehicle, reported by the driver shortly before: unbalanced load or suspension faults.