Brake failure blamed as long-haul fruit truck spills load on Phuket hill
Eakkapop Thongtub


Workers took three hours to clear the overturned truck from the road. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

PHUKET: -- Traffic backed up on the Kamala-Patong hill road for more than three hours yesterday afternoon (April 6) after a six-wheeler spilled its full load of fruit on the road due to brake failure.

Police and Kusoldharm rescue workers arrived at the Kwan Yak curve shortly after 3:40pm to find the truck on its side halfway into a roadside drain.

Debris from the crash spilled across the road, causing traffic jams in both directions in and out of Patong.

“The truck driver, Somphan Talunai, 42, from Ratchaburi, suffered only small bruises to his arms,” said Lt Somneuk Damkaew of the Kamala Police.

Full story: http://www.thephuketnews.com/brake-failure-blamed-as-long-haul-fruit-truck-spills-load-on-phuket-hill-56934.php


-- Phuket News 2016-04-07

Every time a truck crashes here it is blamed on brake failure.

Surely it is brake maintainance failure.

Or just plain driving failure.

More to do with modern day ideas and training....

Back in my day of training, going down hill or even slowing down, there were gears and you used them...... so drivers changing down maybe these older truck would be better off in a lower gear, even new ones for that matter..

Modern day training is use the brakes even good brake maintenance is often not up to the job of long distance of foot on brake, do they exhauster here ? or magnet prop brakes ? or just rely on the brake drums ?

The old brake failure excuse for p*** poor driving skills, pathetic.

More to do with modern day ideas and training....

Back in my day of training, going down hill or even slowing down, there were gears and you used them...... so drivers changing down maybe these older truck would be better off in a lower gear, even new ones for that matter..

Modern day training is use the brakes even good brake maintenance is often not up to the job of long distance of foot on brake, do they exhauster here ? or magnet prop brakes ? or just rely on the brake drums ?

That style of jap truck just has a flapper valve over the exhaust restricting the flow (no not the rain cap). does pretty little. Most likely wrong gear, brakes out of adjustment and overheated.

Ive been there in my junior truck driving days ..bottom of a hill, sailing though a set of red lights with brakes mashed to the floor, hand firmly pulling the horn.

If you survive that one you certainly learn to use engine braking in lower gears and save heating up your brakes.

Lower gear is certainly still taught in Oz at least.

Driver to mechanic "The brakes don't work. Can you fix the horn?"

It's not BF brake failure it's BF brain fade.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE

At what point does someone in authority say, 'Enough is enough, time to set in place a procedure to check the brakes on all trucks every xxx years'. But as usual, silence is golden.

"Spilling one's load" was an odd choice of words...

More to do with modern day ideas and training....

Back in my day of training, going down hill or even slowing down, there were gears and you used them...... so drivers changing down maybe these older truck would be better off in a lower gear, even new ones for that matter..

Modern day training is use the brakes even good brake maintenance is often not up to the job of long distance of foot on brake, do they exhauster here ? or magnet prop brakes ? or just rely on the brake drums ?

That style of jap truck just has a flapper valve over the exhaust restricting the flow (no not the rain cap). does pretty little. Most likely wrong gear, brakes out of adjustment and overheated.

Ive been there in my junior truck driving days ..bottom of a hill, sailing though a set of red lights with brakes mashed to the floor, hand firmly pulling the horn.

If you survive that one you certainly learn to use engine braking in lower gears and save heating up your brakes.

Lower gear is certainly still taught in Oz at least.

And even the exhaust flapper valve is ineffective if you have any manifold leaks at all.

l have worked on trucks where the flap was seized open with rust & gum.

The linkages broken or disconnected but the driver was still "applying" the exhaust brake.

Also worked on trucks with magnetic retarders on the tailshaft.

One brand (MAN)had another shaft out of the gearbox, just for the retarder & nothing else.

When the universal joint collapsed said shaft stopped spinning making the retarder useless, but there was no way for the driver to know this.

IMHO the best system for trucks is a maxi brake system with strong springs & a Jacobson engine brake.

More expensive but so much more reliable.

And yes you are right.

Teach the drivers to shift down on steep grades.

May be a good idea to buy break systems from the west iso the east.

At that point we know for sure about the "break failure" excuse.

How can a double-circuit brake system fail? The two separate air tanks underneath the truck, show the existence of such a system. This is only possible with worn out brake linings. The reason is not a failure of the brake, but the complete absence of the functioning cerebral matter of the driver. Good that nobody was hurt, one mile more with this truck it could have been different.

At what point does someone in authority say, 'Enough is enough, time to set in place a procedure to check the brakes on all trucks every xxx years'. But as usual, silence is golden.

Not xxx years, every single year, as it is a law i.e. in Germany for trucks and buses and taxes.

Slack adjusters too far out. Even if the line is cut or no air pressure to the brakes, it only works if the shoes are close enough to apply friction

More to do with modern day ideas and training....

Back in my day of training, going down hill or even slowing down, there were gears and you used them...... so drivers changing down maybe these older truck would be better off in a lower gear, even new ones for that matter..

Modern day training is use the brakes even good brake maintenance is often not up to the job of long distance of foot on brake, do they exhauster here ? or magnet prop brakes ? or just rely on the brake drums ?

Exactly correct. First thing I was taught whn I drove a bread delivery van in my student years.

Must have engine braking to assist the brakes.

At what point does someone in authority say, 'Enough is enough, time to set in place a procedure to check the brakes on all trucks every xxx years'. But as usual, silence is golden.

In most countries, that would be an appropriate solution.

But remember where you are - the hub of corruption. How many times have you seen an older pickup or motorbike belching out choking amounts of blue smoke while idling, even though by law they're required to pass an emissions test every year in order to obtain their annual road tax sticker. Money talks.

So most trucks and buses that crash every day in Thailand are what? Hino/Isuzu/MAN/Benz/Volvo? I think every time brake failure is cited the manufacturers should be on the scene, produce a report and sue for defamation as I doubt they are at fault.

So most trucks and buses that crash every day in Thailand are what? Hino/Isuzu/MAN/Benz/Volvo? I think every time brake failure is cited the manufacturers should be on the scene, produce a report and sue for defamation as I doubt they are at fault.

Everyone knows it's almost always driver error. Riding and overheating the brakes. Driving too fast in the first place. Zero idea about driving techiques ...

Translation of Brake Failure: driving to fast and waiting too long to apply the brakes resulting in the brakes failing to prevent the accident.

By this definition the drivers are truthful. No need to make it complicated and everyone moves on to the next calamity.

At what point does someone in authority say, 'Enough is enough, time to set in place a procedure to check the brakes on all trucks every xxx years'. But as usual, silence is golden.

The reply is....................................................................................................... soon, not long, later.

Thailand is the Bermuda triangle for brakes.

"Spilling one's load" was an odd choice of words...

Agreed. "Spreading his seed" would have been more apposit.

A couple of years ago I rode my motorbike back from Maw Sot towards Tak.

The road is the AH1 route 12 and IMHO the worst road in Thailand with only 2 lanes in places, 3 lanes in some parts and 4 lanes in others. It twists and turns and goes up and down as well.

My main memory apart from fear was the smell of burning brakes along most of the road. I was tailgated by pickup trucks, mini buses and big tour buses, I had to fight for space to overtake 20 wheel truck/trailers, drivers were overtaking on the wrong side of the road, on blind bends and anywhere they could.

For a while now the government has been rebuilding and widening the road, straightening out some of the worst bends and generally "improving" the road condition. I think that the improvements will increase the accident rates as drivers will be able to go faster than before but still have the same limitation on vehicles, "brake failures" and general dumb ass driving.

This is just my personal opinion. YMMV

Once again, just lucky this fool didn't take out innocent road users.