Horrible accident

[dorsetladette]

We listened for updates all day on the radio. A lot of local FB groups band posts and closed commenting as photos from the scene were being posted thoughtlessly. Requests for help with transport of 2 horses from the scene did make me think they had both survived, but later it was reported that wasn't the case.

I really feel for the driver/owner.

We had an accident years ago with a discovery and 3 horse rice trailer carrying 2 early one morning on the way to a show. A side wind caught the trailer and spun us 360. The trailer toppled over with the heavy welsh cob on top of the partition and a 11.2 welsh pony underneath. I don't know how but they managed to work between them (the ponies) and wiggle the little pony out from underneath. The big lad seemed to lean on the side (floor) of the trailer and take his wait off the partition and pony wiggled out. All before we could get in and release ropes etc. They both walked away with just a couple of scrapes on their legs. And loaded fine later in the day to go home.

 

[Ceriann]

Poor horses and owner. Wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

 

[meleeka]

We listened for updates all day on the radio. A lot of local FB groups band posts and closed commenting as photos from the scene were being posted thoughtlessly. Requests for help with transport of 2 horses from the scene did make me think they had both survived, but later it was reported that wasn't the case.

I really feel for the driver/owner.

We had an accident years ago with a discovery and 3 horse rice trailer carrying 2 early one morning on the way to a show. A side wind caught the trailer and spun us 360. The trailer toppled over with the heavy welsh cob on top of the partition and a 11.2 welsh pony underneath. I don't know how but they managed to work between them (the ponies) and wiggle the little pony out from underneath. The big lad seemed to lean on the side (floor) of the trailer and take his wait off the partition and pony wiggled out. All before we could get in and release ropes etc. They both walked away with just a couple of scrapes on their legs. And loaded fine later in the day to go home.

How terrifying! You probably also saw the video someone posted as they drove past the scene? How anyone can be so insensitive, never mind reckless to be videoing whilst driving I don’t know ?

 

[Frumpoon]

I agree with you.

Nobody else has speculated that this could be the drivers fault. It's very insensitive to do so.

And neither have I if you actually read what is written…..

 

[dorsetladette]

How terrifying! You probably also saw the video someone posted as they drove past the scene? How anyone can be so insensitive, never mind reckless to be videoing whilst driving I don’t know ?

It wasn't nice. But our outcome was much better than yesterday

I heard about the video but didn't see it thankfully - people just don't think before acting anymore.

 

[Tiddlypom]

I'd rather tow on a dual carriageway than a motorway, as slower vehicles are common place on dual carriageways.

IMHO a top safe towing speed is 50 mph, it's fast enough but not usually overly fast if 'stuff' happens. It's too slow to be safe on the motorway, though, as it's slower than the lorries who constantly will be pulling out to overtake, creating hazards of their own. You need to keep up with the lorries, so that's 56 mph, which is a fair bit more momentum.

Having a really good tow outfit certainly helps, but the only overturned jacknifed combo I've seen IRL was a new Range Rover (a full sized one) and a caravan on the downhill stretch of the M5 just south of Bristol.

 

[onemoretime]

It does worry me, a friend lost one of her horses in a trailer accident on the M25. Not her fault, slowing down as there was queueing traffic and an inattentive car driver swerved into the back of the trailer, it flipped on its side. One of the horses broke his leg and had to be put down on there. Truly harrowing for all involved.

OMG Im so sorry, what a dreadful experience, I dont think I would ever put a horse in a box again if that happened to me. I certainly agree about the terrible standard of driving on motorways by car drivers, dodging in and out of lanes at high speeds, I wonder there are not more accidents.

 

[Widgeon]

Whilst this is great in theory, I'm sure horses get a much more comfortable ride on a dual carriageway or motorway and so I tend to take the opposite view and try to avoid single carriageways -both have their pro's and cons

Yes definitely - agreed. But the consequences of someone else's stupidity tend to be higher on a motorway. The main dual carriageway around here (there is only one) has 70mph drivers plus side turnings to villages and reasonably regular fatal accidents, so I don't much like it even just in the car. That's proably not normal though. I guess it all depends on what your local roads are like - we have a lot of farm traffic so drivers tend to be used to slow moving vehicles. Anyway sorry, didn't mean to take the thread off topic.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

I had a blow out in the lorry ( no horse inside)
This accident was so like mine, my mare came out on M4 as the car did a 180 and flipped and car damaged.


So horrific for the owners

 

[phizz4]

While it might be insensitive to speculate about the cause of the crash, it is also understandable that others might want to learn from this terrible experience. Too often, when accidents of any sort happen, the causes are not shared as a learning experience. I do a lot of voluntary work with young people, scouts, d of e, and whenever there is an incident it is rare that there is any open discussion of the lessons to be learnt. It's only by experience that we all become safer at what we do.

 

[Caol Ila]

I feel terrible for the owner of the horse, and the poor horses in the accident.

But I'm going to put on my flame suit and agree with phizz4, the airline industry, and the American Alpine Club (AAC), among others. The AAC has used the aviation industry model of publishing information about rock climbing and mountaineering accidents since 1948, with the view that showing what went wrong will help prevent (some) future accidents, either by encouraging people to be more mindful of and responsive to environmental hazards like rockfall, loose ground, avalanches, long run-outs, weather, et. al.; and more switched on to human errors, like not properly clipping your carabiner on an abseil (it happens... I nearly saw someone kill himself abbing off the Inn Pin on Skye because his rope was trapped in the carabiner gate), not tying knots into a rope on an ab, bad gear placement, glissading with crampons (don't), underpreparedness for weather, a million other things; and hopefully encourage best safety practice with abseils, belays, avy awareness, navigation skills, etc.

However, the UK climbing/mountaineering community has not instituted anything like this (despite being much smaller). Every time there's a well-publicized climbing accident here, people wonder what went wrong, and it has been suggested that the BMC or Mountaineering Scotland or SMC compile information about accidents, like the AAC. But then there's inevitably an epic online row about any information being too upsetting to the victims and their families and friends, and people saying it just can't be done.

Still, if you take any mountaineering safety course, they use tales of accidents to illustrate what not to do and how fast things can go wrong.

Horse transport is also pretty dangerous, with a lot of potential clusterf8kss you can't control, like what the horse does in the trailer, the other idiots on the road, and the laws of physics. I think making details of transport accidents available, in a neutral, objective way, like the AAC does, isn't stupid or insensitive, because anything you can do to minimize those considerable risks is a good thing. And there's nothing like sad, cautionary tales to make people more mindful of risk and of the weak points in their systems.