[TRUKTOR]

A series covering a roll and recovery. No facts or story-line, just the photos.

From the photos, it looks as if the UNIMOG lost traction on a wet upgrade,
maybe the tires loaded up, and it slid backwards until it hit a washout, which
led to it barrel-rolling, driver's-side-first down the slope into the creek.

It seems that way, judging by the tracks on the grass, the chewed-up ground
downslope from the washout, and the final position of the truck, on its wheels
in the creek. It would seem that the high point of the crane did a lot to keep the cab intact. Just a guess. Other detective's theories welcomed, naturally

It is a long series.

 

[TRUKTOR]

Page 2.

 

[TRUKTOR]

Page 3.

 

[TRUKTOR]

Page 4.

 

[TRUKTOR]

Page 5.

 

[TRUKTOR]

Page 6.

 

[TRUKTOR]

Page 7.

 

[TRUKTOR]

Page 8.

 

[TRUKTOR]

Page 9.

 

[DokaTD]

Kinda insane how intact it still is. Surely due to the crane poking out the top

 

[TRUKTOR]

I agree. It might have gone down the hill on its wheels, and then pirouetted around and wound up parallel to the bank, but the torn up slope would seem to indicate that it rolled down there.
Also, the two sets of tracks up the "grassy
knoll"..is that from one event, or did he try to get up there twice...in 2wd; ?

 

[AdamHarward]

I can't believe he lost traction on that slope.....maybe it was wet and really slick but if he was in 4wd and locked with that heavy of a vehicle you would think he would have drove right up it. I guess if he locked it up and it started slide the weight would be working against him.

The way the tracks go over the edge it looks like he was on his tires for awhile.

 

[TRUKTOR]

Yes, photo 4 shows his tracks going to the brink, then he rolled, I think.

That slope does not LOOK like anything...
something you'd go up in a VW bug without a second thought.

 

[graphic66]

Why not just drive it out?

 

[DokaTD]

though it was in good shape, did you see how smashed it was. Im sure it was driveable, but not within reason

 

[TRUKTOR]

I suppose it is also possible that he was
headed down that slope, and those are braking skidmarks on slick grass. The truck would have had to do a 180 somewhere in the journey.

I still think he was headed uphill when
things went wrong.

 

[AdamHarward]

It does look pretty cool in the creek

 

[gzell2]

I think he was pulling into the job, (the power pole with conduit coming down it). He is trying to get close enough to the pole to deploy the PK 20002 and hook up to the man bucket in the bed of the truck, ( held in place by one ratchet strap, and still in place at conclusion of disaster). While judging distance to the pole, so the passenger side of the truck does not hit pole and he won't lose his job for scraping up the mog, he loses traction and begins to slide. Front passenger side tire catches the edge and over the hill he heads. Mog proceeds downhill, splashes into drink, tilts forward and the surge of water cracks windshield, busts the lights up top, mog settles back to rest as current pushes rear downstream leaving it parallell to shore.

I do not see any grass or debris stuck to the top of mog to indicate it rolled down the hill. The bed appears to be in tact with no damage. The passenger side outrigger was ok until the wrecker boys managed to bust it and cut down a nice tree in the recovery process. There appears to be damage from forward impact on the passenger side of the truck in front of and behind the front tire, along with some bent mirror frames.

And what is with the 6x6 pressure treated timber sticking out of the ground half way up (or down) the hill? Sound convincing....

 

[AdamHarward]

I think he was pulling into the job, (the power pole with conduit coming down it). He is trying to get close enough to the pole to deploy the PK 20002 and hook up to the man bucket in the bed of the truck, ( held in place by one ratchet strap, and still in place at conclusion of disaster). While judging distance to the pole, so the passenger side of the truck does not hit pole and he won't lose his job for scraping up the mog, he loses traction and begins to slide. Front passenger side tire catches the edge and over the hill he heads. Mog proceeds downhill, splashes into drink, tilts forward and the surge of water cracks windshield, busts the lights up top, mog settles back to rest as current pushes rear downstream leaving it parallell to shore.

I do not see any grass or debris stuck to the top of mog to indicate it rolled down the hill. The bed appears to be in tact with no damage. The passenger side outrigger was ok until the wrecker boys managed to bust it and cut down a nice tree in the recovery process. There appears to be damage from forward impact on the passenger side of the truck in front of and behind the front tire, along with some bent mirror frames.

And what is with the 6x6 pressure treated timber sticking out of the ground half way up (or down) the hill? Sound convincing....

Sounds good seeing as how most of the damage is on the passenger side of the truck....but if you look close on the air intake on the drivers side it has a hole in it....seems like from a roll. Makes sense seeing the pole there though.

By the way I like the lights on the top!

 

[TRUKTOR]

A good theory, and you may be correct.

However some points that may work against it:

A. The double set of skid marks. If they are from a single event, or skid, then they start and stop in a strange way, and they are off-set enough that the truck must have been well crossed-up, yet the tracks show no sign of a sideways motion; they appear to be directly inline.

I think they show two tries up the hill, and the second try is the darker, deeper track. A guess, for sure.

B. The hillside over the brink is well torn up, and there is no sign of tire tracks once the edge is cleared. No recovery has started, so, if the truck wasn't rolling, what plowed the hillside up? If it went over on its wheels, I'd expect to see tire tracks most of the way down, not a well-disrupted hillside.

The ground looks saturated and very soft.....

C. So the bed might have not been bent up , possibly due to the softness of the earth and maybe because it was a slow speed event, at the start anyway. Again, maybe the crane high point served as a pivot and was the main impact point. If you look, the bed is smeared/embedded with dirt along the top edge, and it does not appear that the recovery process would have gotten it there.
Given the distance from the bank to where the truck wound up on its wheels, I'd expect one cab rotation through the creek, which might have helped wash it off a bit.

D. The crane stanchion (passenger side) may have extended if/when the hydraulic line was ruptured. I don't see any sign of that stanchion dragging
through the grass up on top.

E. I don't think the thing would have stood on its nose in a manner that would have broken the roof lamps.

All this is just guessing, of course, and I am only offering these points up
for pondering and entertainment, not for argument's sake. The more theories the better.