Major Safety Issues Related With Dump Truck

Some safety measures should be taken care of by the drivers of dump trucks when they are driving it or loading materials into them. Lack of application of dump truck safety measures is the biggest cause of accident with these equipments.

With increasing length of dump truck bodies and semitrailer dumping rigs, there is higher tendency of them tipping over. Semitrailer dumping rigs are more prone to this kind of accident than used dump trucks. There is no statistics available about this type of accident, but people who are involved with the operation of these dump trucks are of the opinion that incidence of this kind accidents is increasing.

When the box is in raised position, there is a major safety issue with the stability of the end-dump unit. To avoid such an accident, the center of gravity of both the box and load should be kept between the frame rails of the unit.

Following conditions could affect the stability of dump trucks:
” The unit is not standing on level ground while dumping materials.
” Large amount of material is in the upper portion of the raised box.
” Materials do not flow out of the top portion of the box or from one side of the top portion
” Rear wheels settle unevenly when the load moves towards the rear during the process of dumping.
” Wind exerts lateral loads especially when the box is long. This problem is more common with end-dump semi-trailers.

Because semi-trailers are less stable, they should not be used for rough grading or filling areas with uneven surface are not tightly compacted.
Proper maintenance of these dump trucks is very important to avoid tip-overs. These could include:
” Checking tire pressure daily.
” Examining and lubricating pins.

While loading the box from front to back, it should not exceed the allowable gross weight and axle weight. It should be loaded as evenly as possible from side to side. If the material being loaded does not flow evenly, load in the top end of the box should be reduced.

Operators should get trained to recognize the areas where it would be hazardous to dump like soft or uneven surface or improperly compacted place. While dumping, it should be ensured that the tailgate is unlocked and the vehicle is standing on reasonably level surface.Some of them are Freightliner dump truck, International dump truck, Ford dump truck.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 at 11:08 pm and is filed under Dump Trucks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.