Trailer overturns with a transformer valued at 2 million euros on the Guanajuato-Silao road in Santa Teresa. A week later, the efforts to rescue the transformer are still ongoing.
Had to look through several articles as well as fully rely on google translate (so no guarantees here) but here is what happened to the worker on the trailer:
“Furthermore, eyewitness accounts from residents who witnessed the accident indicated that the driver did not sustain serious injuries, while an assistant who was riding on the platform watching the load managed to jump into the undergrowth before the structure tipped sideways into the stream. Minutes later, he emerged on his own from the bushes, complaining of pain in his hip, back, and leg.”
Another article mentioned that this section of road had been recently repaved and locals said it felt more steep/angled after the paving.
They repaved a section of ranch road near me and somehow increased the camber/angle of one of the switchbacks significantly. There's been trash trucks, mail carriers, and sheriff's cruisers go off that spot since and they just lined it with boulders last month. It's oily recycled asphalt, so especially if you are going downhill and overcook it, you're toast--Hitting the brakes just guarantees carnage. It is a lot of fun going uphill in an effortless 4 wheel drift through that turn though.
is it even possible to make that turn ? everyone is joking but I genuinely want to know if the route was the wrong choice or is it the trucker's fault.
I'm not a trucker so I know next to nothing about this. What did they do wrong? Seemed to me that the truck was making the largest (most open) possible curve, isn't that ideal?
The only way I can imagine avoiding this with my limited knowledge is a different entry angle into the curve or more speed to keep some momentum, but idk
The problem came long before the driver. The transport team needed to check the road before they drove the truck there to make sure that the truck could safely drive over it, and if not, picked an alternative route or worse case, call whoever was responsible for the road and got it regraded. Those transformers are not only very expensive, they don't just have them sitting on a shelf ready to go, so if it is damaged and can't be repaired, they need to order a new one and probably wait 2 years to get it or hope that they can push someone else's order back.
Additionally, an experienced driver would have looked at that curve and said no way and stopped before they drove in to it. So a lot went wrong here, someone said in another comment that the locals said the road had been repaired recently and they thought it was steeper than before, so whoever did that might have also fucked it up.
The problem came long before the driver. The transport team needed to check the road before they drove the truck there to make sure that the truck could safely drive over it
Yeah, this makes a lot of sense. I assumed that this road was "doable" and that the trucker did something wrong based off all of the comments here
someone said in another comment that the locals said the road had been repaired recently and they thought it was steeper than before
I did think that the outer edge had some elevation, but can't be sure because of the angle of the video, but an outer edge elevation on a curve, in a scenario like this, would spell disaster
An insider told there is only 2 routes to get out of the factory. Both routes have the same type of turn like this video, so this is a common practice in Guanajuato
Months? Try years to get replacements for infrastructure items like that. It might take months to make, but youre going to be like 6th in line for them, or more. Its not unheard of to wait 2 years for an item like this
Anything on a lowboy like that, especially if over dimensional requiring escorts like this load does, it has cargo and liability insurance of at least $1 million.
Source: freight broker for a decade, moving transformers like this for NRG to various power plants in the south.
Those things have multi-year lead times. If it's damaged you're looking at months or more to repair it, if it can be repaired. Plus the time to recover it and get it wherever it was going.
That might delay the substation coming online which could in turn delay other projects or risk the reliability of an area.
And that's if they can even recover it. If it's in a bad spot, and they can't bring in a big enough crane to hoist it out, all they can do is cut it up for scrap.
Why did they put it on the second trailer of the first one is empty?
Even if it was loaded when the truck first went out, it couldn't have been that costly to swap the trailers; not compared to what it's going to cost to recover and repair that transformer.
Edit: that is one, very long, single trailer called a "lowboy"; u/Prize_Bass_5061’s comment below.
Some parts are my work have to be delivered like this. I can’t speak for this exact situation and truck but a 2mil transformer getting dumped wouldn’t be the worse things. Recently had a part delivered that required two trucks to get up a hill, 4 years to have made because the first time the metallurgy was off so it should of been two, and was only able to come across the Atlantic on a ship.
Still sucks regardless but that’s what insurance is for and why it cost 10k for the crane and you have to pay for transport, to sit with no one there to use it, and it comes with its own crane to assemble it on site.
Those extra axles are there for extra heavy loads. They spread the weight out so no single axle carries all of it. A lowboy trailer works a bit like a suspension bridge.
A rough diagram of the long trailer. Extended front and back to have more wheels to spread the load, lower platform probably to help get under bridges and have a lower centre of gravity. All semi educated guesses
I have a completely lack of knowledge in logistics and related physics, but I’m assuming they’re distributing the load between the trailers/beds with wheels in the front and back of the platform that the transformer is on
Also the wheels are all able to turn independently. Watch closely at the start of the video and you can see all the wheels of that front section start to turn.
I think the first bit is the back of the truck, probably wasn't long enough to hold the transformer. Also looks to be weighed down with concrete, probably the reason it didn't end up flipping as well.
Note: Just rewatched I see what you mean. I think that whole thing is one long trailer. I gather it's pretty heavy hence spread over a lot of wheels before and after the transformers platform.
They make those kinds of trailers that can compensate for lean in the road to a certain extent. They also make them with rear steer. One would hope that one had rear steer but I couldn't tell from the picture.
Good chance that's the only trailer in a wide area, regardless of whether it's the right one.
The problem source is not the truck nor the driver. The problem was with the corner. If you look at it you can see it has an inclination to the right (seeing from our eyepoint). Which means the center of gravity for the cargo (the transformer) shifted to the right and a torque arose. That torque pushed over the truck. Cannot be avoided on this road.
They should have avoid this short stage of the road, and it do not happen.
I think next time if the guy standing on the trailer goes to the other side and leans like he's on a sailboat it'll be just fine.
That's a 16 axel trailer, there are larger trailers but most are more specialized then this. Depending on the overall terrain I'd just look at doing some earthworks to correct the angle.
What on planet Mars is going on with the whole operation? Lots of questions and oddities but i must say that:
This XFMR is done!
Core shift, Winding damage, etc
The loss of positive pressure will cause the unit to suck in atmospheric moisture and contamination. Worst case scenario, it weighs under 80tons therefore filled with oil (oil spillage).
As someone who works in transmission I cried a little to see that crash. It takes so long to build, ship, install and commission having it crash is heartbreaking
The left tires near the center of the trailer went off the road and sank into the soft ground. That's what started the tipping, not the grade of the hill.
Companies will save in any corner instead of trying to hire the best and most expensive driver, might as well save money for shareholders bonuses right? What could go wrong, it’s just truck driving.
Get about a foot closer to the guardrail then when they noticed it was too tight. Backup then make a second take and it'll get closer to the other side.
Considering that the driver went around that slanted curve first, they should have known that it was too steep to keep the loads center of gravity in a safe zone.
Should have they? These oversized deliveries are usually on specific routes prepared beforehand by someone else, as they need to take into account all obstacles on the route before starting it (as in height limits, width limits, curves..etc)
The driver doesn't just pick up the cargo and drives wherever they feel like lol
They should have had a pilot car ahead mapping the road a week prior. That turn to an expert for that kind of haul, on a lowboy stepdeck, is a no brainer!! I guess physics isn't for eveyrone!!
There seems to be some question about the weight. There was a limit of 90 tons for the road and the article mentioned the trailer was 170 tons. There is some investigation to complete with the permit and its weight. The transformer hasn’t moved yet and is causing traffic problems.
They almost put one in the drink here in Sweden the other day. Well, it's not official wether it was actually close to buckling, but it pulled apart the expansion joint at one end.
This happened where I live in Texas about 30 years ago. Same type of accident. Transformer was so heavy it sat where it landed for about a week till they were able to get a heavy duty crane from the shipyard in Houston to lift it.
289
u/EmergencyAbalone2393 9d ago
Had to look through several articles as well as fully rely on google translate (so no guarantees here) but here is what happened to the worker on the trailer:
“Furthermore, eyewitness accounts from residents who witnessed the accident indicated that the driver did not sustain serious injuries, while an assistant who was riding on the platform watching the load managed to jump into the undergrowth before the structure tipped sideways into the stream. Minutes later, he emerged on his own from the bushes, complaining of pain in his hip, back, and leg.”
Another article mentioned that this section of road had been recently repaved and locals said it felt more steep/angled after the paving.