Please remember to lower your dump box

This happened fairly close to me. Near the corner of Fransis rd and Grand River in SW Clinton County Mi. That's I69 up there.







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It can happen when the driver does not shut off the PTO and the valve lets a little pressure get by raising the trailer. Not saying that is what happened here but its one possibility.

Back in 2005 neighbor across highway had drive way worked on and they drove out on to highway with box up, large triaxle and took out neutral on maim line feeding town. I was the first house on load side of break it took out my heat pump, well pump and computer and monitor.

Must of been a traffic jamb, lol.

But really, looks like a 10 mph hit.

When I came back thru 2 hours later it was still there and the road closed off completely. Highway above was still open.

Hey, you can see that damn brige is too low. Has all of them warning signs on it.

The family of a fellow on our Fire Department owns a pretty big excavation company. They have probably 20 dump trucks. two years ago on a project in the next town a new driver on his first day pulled out onto the road without lowering his body and took six poles down before he ran out of power. My friend said that it is just a cost of doing business and insurance pays for it. I fortunately have never yet done anything like that. I did get onto the interstate once without latching my gate. I stopped and got it closed and kicked the stones that fell out off the pavement and got out of there fast. Two years ago another part time driver where I drive now and then opened his gate in a busy intersection. The owners got there fairly quickly with a skid steer and got it cleaned up but the state still charged them $500.00 to sweep it.

He was busy, talking to a buddy about U of M football. Terrible how working gets in the way of life. This is the great American workforce.

Is it fair to ask how far he drove on the interstate without checking his rear view mirrors?

That was my first thought when I saw the picture. It creeped up on him as he was driving. It would be hard to believe even the most
unitentive driver would have just forgot to let it down and just took off.

45 years at the wheel of dump and never took anything down

I saw the owner of a small construction do the same thing(about ten employees)I saw him coming down the gravel, I just supposed he was cleaning out the bed,I came back about an hour later,the bed was on the ground and the tri axle was in the ditch. He bought a big sign and a bridge inspection,plus rebuilding the truck.

I'll bet a steering wheel in the gut don't feel very good!!!!!!

Mirrors,use them. If your in that big a rush you violated a dot rule i agree with,check your tailgate to be sure its latched and make sure no debris is on the chute board. Yes they want that done to prevent crap from flying into windshields and on roadways

Thankfully I have never done something like that. Around here DOT will write you up if you don't have an operating "body up" red light on your dash.

(quoted from post at 04:01:02 11/19/19) Mirrors,use them. If your in that big a rush you violated a dot rule i agree with,check your tailgate to be sure its latched and make sure no debris is on the chute board. Yes they want that done to prevent crap from flying into windshields and on roadways

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R.w.b. , amazingly thoughtful advice!

I dont know why they don't have some kind of a loud alarm inside the cab that goes off when up.or a large red flashing light right in front of there face something that will definitely get there attention. I see this happen in ohio two or three times a year.it has to be more than a little light flashing somewhere on the dash Rick

When I was driving sugar beet truck that was sometimes a concern, as some fields had power lines across them, and we were in the dark half the time. We always hauled some dirt back to the field from the plant and had to dump it before being loaded again.

That hits pretty close to me. Some of you may remember that my wife was nearly killed when a dump truck took down a phone line, wrapped it around her leg and dragged her down the road. She has recovered very well, but still gets nervous when she sees a dump box up, even if the truck isn't moving.

He wasn't on the interstate. He's on Grand River a main but local road. The interstate is what he hit up there.

I didn't find where he came from but.. They are putting in a new truck stop on the far side of the intersection in the photo. Part of this they are widening Grand River and Fransis roads. He might have dropped gravel as part of that. But I have no idea.

Side note:

Years ago when they were building US127 over M21 by St Johns, Mi there was a truck that left his box up and hit the overpass. He hit hard enough the tore the box right off and took out two bridge beams. They had to replace much of the bridge.

Back in like 1973 i was driving coal bucket for a guy . Back then our control levers were on the out side of the drivers door , you had two levers one for the PTO and one to control the up down hold . . It was COMMON knowledge to ALWAY keep the up down lever in the DOWN and that was the forward possession and foward on the PTO was out . I was the last truck in the yard this one evening and backed up next to the fuel tanks as we just had the common 350 gallon tanks up on stands like most farms had and gravity flow . While i was fueling the BOSS came down and he and i were talking and he was messing with my levers as he was the nervous type and always had to fidgit with something . I was going to move my truck because i did not know if his boy hadd come in as his truck was not setting in the yard as he dove a tri axle straight truck . When i went to get in the cab to move over the boss say just leave it as his kid had come in and fueled before the other driver came in and took the truck to his house for the night as he was working just down the street from his house on a construction job . So i left it set and went on to the house . Next morning i was running a bit late from when i wanted to be off and running . Bob the other driver was gone the boss was GONE and i just knew i was going to hear about being late . My truck held good air and would hold air for four days , yep un heard of but it would . It was foggy as all get out and at best you could only see a 100 feet . I fired up the might 318 kicked the brakes off and out the drive i went i did not even have to stop for the traffic light . I did no0tice when i went to change gears she was a little slugish . Mirrors were covered over with dew and the mirror heat had not started to work just yet and i started to hear this twing twing twing and felt a sorta jerking of the truck and i stopped and looked out the drivers door back at the trailer and there she is up about to the forth scope piston and all kinds of lines hanging from the tarp basket , OOOOOOPPPPPPPS hit the down and jerked the PTO out and the box dropped and i was pulling phone lines off the basket had a FEW house service lines also hanging also . got back in the truck and on down to the coke plant . Got back to the yard that evening and there were all kinds of utility trucks working sucking up on that inch and a half fixen lines . I back in next to the fuel tanks and start filling and here come the boss and once again he is messing with the levers and telling me about how they lost power sometime early in the morning as someone took down all them lines and i said SOMEONE really wonder how that happened and i point to all them black marks on the box and again said really just don't under stand how that happened and i point to his hand on the levers . I get OOOOOHHHHHH don't say anything . Some how all them black lines on the nose of the trailer vanished over night . John Never touched my levers again. About a year later and Acme coal driver was killed on I680 while it was under construction when he failed to drop his box after dumping and took off flying with the box in the air and he caught the only over pass in that section and it caused the truck to be pulled up and slamed the cab into the bottom of the over pass smashing the cab down flat even with the hood and that driver i knew he was a BIG boy that took up most of that D M600 Mack cab. I did not see it happen but i saw it shortly after it happened as i was also hauling on that job . we were hauling out of Standard Slags Struther plant hauling base and it was a short run with lots of trucks on it . Now today the trucks all have incab controls Some are air shift and still some cable and levers . Most have a warning light that tells you hey dummy you left the PTO in gauged . Old ones did not have that light . Also i don't care if ya drive a straight truck or a semi you shold check your mirrors . A lesson learned the hard way and luckly it was only wires . It makes one aware of what is going on more around you then looking straight ahead . What gets me are the guys that hit bridges pulling box trails and heavy equipment . there are signs that tell you ahead of time there are BOOKS that will tell you before you move what lays ahead . Just because i could fit 40 ton of coal under one under pass does not mean i can make a 13.6 box fit , first off ya can get up enough speed and chicken hauler stack will be of the CURVED design if ya try . a 14.4 load will not fit under a 14.4 under pass with tarp and padding added.

When the grandfather was still hauling logs it wasn't uncommon to get a few telephone drops on a hot day. They pulled down the Christmas lights in Howell once, load measured 13' 6".

Always heard once you wiped a bridge with your box causing damage, you would be almost un-insurable for commercial insurance. Not sure if it's actually true. I do my best not to find out.