Worst Day Ever
Topic 19411 | Page 2
(Note to self: appropriate second fire extinguisher and locate in passenger side box)
Yikes. Glad you're okay and everything was brought under control quickly. Can't say I've ever had to deal with flaming wheels, but I did have a kinda similar incident happen once upon a time almost 4 years ago. You can read about it here, if you're interested:
Broke An Axle And Lost My Tandem
Tandems:
Tandem Axles
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
Tandem:
Tandem Axles
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
Ok Brett, here's what happened. I was heading into Indy on I70W. Had taken my 10 at Sideling Hill Plaza in PA, fueled in Zanesville, OH and everything was fine. Went through scales in Ohio and Indiana.. obviously no problems. I'm cruising and out of the blue, I feel this hard lurch like something was wrong with the truck.. I'm looking at all the gauges and not seeing anything wrong.. no warnings no alarms. It was windy as heck.. 20-30 mph winds. My tandems were legal but load was not loaded correctly was heavier to the rear.. barely legal on tandems.
Anyway felt the hard lurch, truck slowed down, I saw smoke, managed to get stopped. I bailed out the passenger side with my phone and my billfold and called 911. Flames were shooting out of the 5th axle, all trailer airlines were on the ground. 4th axle was fine. Other drivers wouldn't get over and I couldn't get to my fire extinguisher in the drivers side sidebox.
First officer to arrive grabbed his fire extinguisher while I got my triangles. Within minutes I had 5 officers assisting. They emptied 3 extinguishers to put out my 5th axle. They called fire department to verify nothing else was burning and called DOT.
The DOT officer did a level 2, which obviously went badly due to the fire etc. He says the securement for the trailer airlines broke causing them to drag and put a small hole for airlines going to 5th axle. The DOT guy said I did everything I possibly could and handled the situation well and to chalk it up as a "sh#t happens" kinda thing. He told me no tickets no points but trailer, rightfully placed OOS until proper repairs which couldn't be done on the shoulder. I still actually had air pressure to the trailer. I've asked a couple mechanics and still scratching my head trying to figure it out.
The tow driver was lazy. He didn't drop the drive shaft but instead removed my rear axle. Our mechanic at Indy terminal had to put new axle seals and wasn't happy how the tow driver did it.
The caveat.. our safety director called me yesterday and says that DOT officer hit me with 57? CSA points due to the fire. I need someone to explain how the 5th axle burned but #4 was fine, why I didn't have alarms or appreciable loss of airpressure. I also need lessons on understanding CSA points. Safety and our shop accepted my explanation and said it was reasonable but I'm so confused. I want to know how, why, and why it burned so fast.
Terminal:
A facility where trucking companies operate out of, or their "home base" if you will. A lot of major companies have multiple terminals around the country which usually consist of the main office building, a drop lot for trailers, and sometimes a repair shop and wash facilities.
Tandems:
Tandem Axles
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
Tandem:
Tandem Axles
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
CSA:
Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA)
The CSA is a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) initiative to improve large truck and bus safety and ultimately reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities that are related to commercial motor vehicle
DOT:
Department Of Transportation
A department of the federal executive branch responsible for the national highways and for railroad and airline safety. It also manages Amtrak, the national railroad system, and the Coast Guard.
State and Federal DOT Officers are responsible for commercial vehicle enforcement. "The truck police" you could call them.
OOS:
When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.
The caveat.. our safety director called me yesterday and says that DOT officer hit me with 57? CSA points due to the fire. I need someone to explain how the 5th axle burned but #4 was fine, why I didn't have alarms or appreciable loss of airpressure. I also need lessons on understanding CSA points.
I need those lessons too. But first, is that a typo? 57 points? 7 points? Five 7 point violations? A 5 point and a 7 point?
CSA:
Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA)
The CSA is a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) initiative to improve large truck and bus safety and ultimately reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities that are related to commercial motor vehicle
DOT:
Department Of Transportation
A department of the federal executive branch responsible for the national highways and for railroad and airline safety. It also manages Amtrak, the national railroad system, and the Coast Guard.
State and Federal DOT Officers are responsible for commercial vehicle enforcement. "The truck police" you could call them.
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.
Susan wrote:
The caveat.. our safety director called me yesterday and says that DOT officer hit me with 57? CSA points due to the fire.
57 points for a "single" violation to a driver is virtually impossible. The highest point score for a single violation is 10, and they are serious violations that I know you are not capable of committing. What did he write you up for, what was the number on the violation? The only thing he could possibly write you up for is 392.14 "Failure to use caution in hazardous conditions"; carries a 5 point value. He'd have to be total jerk to do that after commenting you handled the situation correctly. Even so, this still makes no sense; if he didn't issue a citation to you for this incident (which he would have handed you), there shouldn't be any points added to your driver CSA score. The 57 might have gone against the company score which makes way more sense. And finally I do not know if CSA points are posted in real-time. If I were you I'd request clarification from your safety person and wait a week or so to pull a copy of your DAC.
The 5th axle burned simply because the brakes got hotter, faster on that axle. It might have also blown a seal, leaking lube-oil ignited. Who really knows.
Glad you are okay.
CSA:
Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA)
The CSA is a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) initiative to improve large truck and bus safety and ultimately reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities that are related to commercial motor vehicle
DOT:
Department Of Transportation
A department of the federal executive branch responsible for the national highways and for railroad and airline safety. It also manages Amtrak, the national railroad system, and the Coast Guard.
State and Federal DOT Officers are responsible for commercial vehicle enforcement. "The truck police" you could call them.
DAC:
Drive-A-Check Report
A truck drivers DAC report will contain detailed information about their job history of the last 10 years as a CDL driver (as required by the DOT).
It may also contain your criminal history, drug test results, DOT infractions and accident history. The program is strictly voluntary from a company standpoint, but most of the medium-to-large carriers will participate.
Most trucking companies use DAC reports as part of their hiring and background check process. It is extremely important that drivers verify that the information contained in it is correct, and have it fixed if it's not.
This is a brake down of the sca points
https://www.thebalance.com/what-infractions-cause-a-drive-to-receive-points-1361539
As for your question on #4 vs #5 axel. Do you have 2 sets or airlines running under your trailer or 2 airlines running under your trailer? If you have 2 sets you rubbed a hole in the red airline to the #5 axel causing a loose or air pressure, and the spring brakes activated/ started to activate. If you have only 2 airlines rubbed a hole in the red airline, the brakes were out of adjustment on eather the #4 to loose or the #5 to tight or correct. Causing the #5 brakes to drag and catch fire.
The alarm only goes off when you loose to much air pressure for the air tanks. If you were still above the alarm pressure there would be no alarm. Did the tractor protection valve pop? The trucks compressor was still working and able to keep the tanks above the alarm point but you were still loosing air some wear down the trailer.
OOS:
When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.
This is a brake down of the sca points
https://www.thebalance.com/what-infractions-cause-a-drive-to-receive-points-1361539
As for your question on #4 vs #5 axel. Do you have 2 sets or airlines running under your trailer or 2 airlines running under your trailer? If you have 2 sets you rubbed a hole in the red airline to the #5 axel causing a loose or air pressure, and the spring brakes activated/ started to activate. If you have only 2 airlines rubbed a hole in the red airline, the brakes were out of adjustment on eather the #4 to loose or the #5 to tight or correct. Causing the #5 brakes to drag and catch fire.
The alarm only goes off when you loose to much air pressure for the air tanks. If you were still above the alarm pressure there would be no alarm. Did the tractor protection valve pop? The trucks compressor was still working and able to keep the tanks above the alarm point but you were still loosing air some wear down the trailer.
CSA:
Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA)
The CSA is a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) initiative to improve large truck and bus safety and ultimately reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities that are related to commercial motor vehicle
OOS:
When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.
They don't have to wright a citation for sca points all they have to do is note defects. Such as the time my turn signal burned out in route. I got 6 sca points for. No citation, no ticket, just noted on my inspection forum. My understanding is they don't like to give tickets for this stuff sense you can fight them in court but there is nothing you can do with just a warning or a inspection forum.
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CSA DAC Reports Dealing With The Boss DOT Driver Responsibilities Hard Lessons Learned Pre-trip inspection (PTI) Truck Driving Stories Understanding The Laws
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Holy cow! So glad you are ok!