FleetWatch releases pictures of brake faults on N12 truck which ploughed into 50 cars on Tuesday 14th.
Brake faults on Truck involved in the N12 Horror Crash
Early Friday morning, FleetWatch published on its Facebook page an in-cab video – released to FleetWatch by Imperial Logistics – showing the horror accident on the N12. We now release the pictures taken by Patrick O’Leary of the braking faults he found on the tipper combination which caused the mayhem. These were taken on the scene of the crash. What O’Leary saw were faults wide spread across the rig starting with the steering axle and continuing through to the axles on the trailer.
The first picture shows a brake drum with no brake shoes in it at all. The camshaft is hanging loose. There is nothing inside the drum. It is empty. No brakes here at all. This is not a new fault as indicated by rust on the inside surface of the drum.
The second picture shows the brake lining broken in the brake drum and a huge gap between the lining and the drum. Total fault.
The third picture shows a lining so thin that it has worn through to the rivets. The gap is also huge between the drum and the brake shoe. Then there is a gap seen through the inspection hole of the dust cover on another axle. Note the gap between the brake lining and the drum. Last are the incorrectly set slack adjusters which leads to imbalanced braking.
O’Leary says if this rig had been put onto a brake roller tester prior to the accident, It would have failed and been discontinued. “From what I saw, that truck should not have been on the road. The claim of ‘brake failure’ is wrong as there were no brakes to fail.” he says.
