The Stuff You See On Facebook.

As one who is going to get into the Industry soon I follow a number of trucking related FB groups. Saw this post today: "to the ******* that pulled the drivers fifth wheel pin, he lost his trailer and it hit another truck putting two people out if service. Happened in New Braunfels Pilot."

I guess if the driver had done a pre trip or at least a walk around two drivers would still be in service.

That's why I always check it before I move, every single time. I saw a video on YouTube where that garbage happened to an unsuspecting driver.

In all the zillions of times seeing drivers pull out of a truck stop, I've yet to see even a single one of them check to be sure that their kingpin is still locked in.

I decided to make it a habit to ALWAYS check the kingpin every single time before pulling out - I don't ever want to be the guy that dropped a trailer, potentially injuring others and damaging equipment. It only takes a few seconds...

As one who is going to get into the Industry soon I follow a number of trucking related FB groups. Saw this post today: "to the ******* that pulled the drivers fifth wheel pin, he lost his trailer and it hit another truck putting two people out if service. Happened in New Braunfels Pilot."

I guess if the driver had done a pre trip or at least a walk around two drivers would still be in service.

Sounds like a pretty common sense thing to me....

Yeah, this definitely is not a new phenomenon... when I first started driving OTR in 1994, I was taught to always back into the trailer (with the trailer brakes locked) to ensure the kingpin was locked before rolling the truck forward. Bare minimum, id always do a quick walk around the rig to look it over every time i got out of the cab. That along with a back in / tug test and I never had to wonder when or if I would drop a trailer.

I can't imagine the thinking of such a move like this...Anyway, when you park set trailer brakes (if its not 50 below zero) and put a tug on it.. Set tracor. Pressure on the pin will make handle unable to disengage locking mechanism. When leaving in morning you'll tug test with a simple backward forward pull... I get a visual anyway with a quick pretrip looking for damage and leaks while listen for air..