The caravanners who were involved in a nightmare crash on the Stuart Highway last week have described the full horror of the near-death experience.
Victorian man Daniel Penn, along with his wife and two children, walked away physically unharmed after a triple road train slammed into their van.
Mr Penn told thre Herald Sun that the family had stopped the car 11 kilometres north of the Erldunda Roadhouse, near the NT-SA border, due to a traffic controller’s instructions. He said the road train managed to turn at the last second and took out the caravan.
He described it as a ‘miracle’ they are still alive.
“It gave us one hell of a ride,” Mr Penn told the Herald Sun. “The caravan flipped up into the air over our vehicle, onto the truck’s windscreen and then scraped down the side of our vehicle.”
He said the caravan got snapped straight off the tow bar, and was just totally smashed underneath the truck, which ended up pulling up about 20 meters in front of them.
“The caravan was in pieces, and the car was pretty wrecked, it might be a write-off,” he told the Herald Sun. “After the car stopped we just looked at each other … my wife and I looked at the kids and we just couldn’t believe that we were still alive.”
Mr Penn said if the caravan had not been attached to their car their family would not have been so lucky.
“The truck driver managed to pull to the side … which saved our lives,” he said. “I thought it was going straight over us and we would have been squashed under the truck. It was scary as!”
The Herald Sun reports that the whole family got out of the car within 30 seconds in case there was fuel leaking.
“The truck driver ran out of his truck to check on us,” he said. “After the whole incident the truck driver told me he had come over the crest of a hill and couldn’t stop as we were pulled up … he thought the traffic was moving.”
At stop and go I always put my flashers on.
Me too..always put hazard lights on when stopped at roadworks
Maybe we should have been taught this as well. Thank you for letting us know. Now I will do the same.
Hi yes put your flashers on also I always leave enough space in front of me so I can escape if someone comes up behind me as is going to fast glad to hear you and your family got out safe
Good idea, Joe.
Yes, this is used in Europe on the autobarns and highways to warn drivers behind you that you have stopped.
It is part of the Spanish license requirement and test. Worth looking at here?
Me three
I always call on the uhf ch40 and let everyone know traffic is stopped heading south, naturally if it’s good line of sight there’s no need however just have your brake lights on whilst waiting
When ever I have trucks or cars behind me and I have to pull up I keep flashing my brake lights as much as I can, as I know some times it can be hard to tell if a vehicle is moving or stoped
Have had quite a few worrying situations with poor placement of traffic controllers and or police and poor escort vehicle operation. Of course I am sure the caravan driver always gets the blame because they are untrained, unlicensed, cannot drive, inexperienced, or too old.
Wow. But not in all.cases I hope.
Me too. Learned this strategy when doing an advanced motorcycle skills course
It appears neither caravan driver or truck driver at fault, going by truck drivers statement. How many times do we see these traffic controllers in inappropiate places. Glad everyone escaped unharmed car/caravan can be replaced
Why was traffic controller there ? Check he has appropriate SWMS and permits.
Just wondering was there warning signs out, workmen ahead and stop/go man ahead signage.
As others have said I use my hazards and in addition make a call over UHF.
Very happy to see no one hurt.
Thank goodness everyone is safe .
Trucks just can’t stop on a dime and you were so so lucky – thank goodness no one was seriously hurt – I do hope everyone will have some form of counselling as this type of incident will run over and over in people’s heads no matter how ‘ tough’ you are
The Stop & Goes should have had warning signs on the crest of the hill. That family is lucky to have walked away.
Stopping vehicles to queue up on the other side of the crest of a hill – how dangerous is that – it is an accident waiting to happen.
No, it’s a accident that did happen
Probably find it was border security, not road works as some are thinking.
Either way, they should have had it manned better so vehicles could get off the road.
Not border security. SA border is about 150km south of that location.
The traffic man plan should include for RTthat need time to adjust and stop.sighnage should have identified the pending road works,way in advance or a call in for RT
I’m always watching my mirrors,I leave a gap between me and the car in front just in case of accidents like this I’ll just take of up the inside…guess I get like this from riding a bike as well no 2nd chances on them..
Yes I do as well. Leave about 20m between me and the other car. Flashers on. Then when there are around 6 cars behind me, I move up but always leave an escape route
It’s a very dangerous position to be. Rear of the stopped line of traffic. I have always been wary of being last in the queue and by habit always leave a decent gap between me and the vehicle in front. Also, I look around at the possibility of having somewhere to get out of the way incase you spot a vehicle approaching at speed from behind. Not always possible but no harm in looking. As previously said, hazard lights on, brake lights repeatedly applied. It may just alert those drivers not paying full attention.
It happened to me near Coffs Harbour years ago last in the queue at road works during the day. Dry road fine weather. I saw the vehicle bearing down on me and I then heard sceaching brakes and saw smoke under his vehicle. Luckily I was able to quickly move out of his way. The Toyota Land cruiser went passed me, swerving to miss other vehicles eventually stopping well into the worksite causing workers to dive out of his way. The driver admitted he did not notice the stopped traffic. Also, he stated, he knew his brakes only worked on one rear wheel and he had meant to have them fixed. I noticed there was only one long single wheel skid mark on the road. His wife and two children had been fast asleep and were woken when he attempted to stop. They appeared to be in shock, not realising what had happened. I wonder what caused his inattention. I try not to think of the outcome if I hadn’t been able to take the action I did. Statistics show, being last in the line increases the risk.
A un road worthy car is a accident to happen.
So glad everyone is safe.
I always stop with at least a car length gap to the queued traffic and watch in my mirrors until i feel safe from being rear ended
Brian, One car length would not be enough. How could you move? Try a few more lengths another time. No-one going anywhere, so no complaints. Be safe..
It will be a good investigation. Most roadworks we’ve come across show traffic down well in advance, usually 100, 80, 60 then 40. Generally I say. If that was the case most vehicles would or should have slowed. Will be interesting findings.
There is an ‘overabundance’ of trucks involved in horrific road smashes, in proportion to car on car crashes. I’ve seen so many road train and semi drivers happily yacking on their phones, or eating a hamburger or a pie whilst trying to drive their rig, BOTH illegal, and downright dangerous, and putting others lives at risk.
Forward thinking means we pull up well to the left at roadworks not like 90 % of drivers love being against the middle line ( i dont know why )
Steve Yes they often seem ambidextrous. Maybe a problem with the right and left side of the brain, as well!?
WRONG
everyday there are far more car to car crashes
Steve, you sound like a truck hater, there are less accidents between trucks / trucks and cars than there is between trucks and cars per percentage on the road. 80% of all truck/car accidents are the fault of the car. If you are a full time traveler like I am learn to live with all road users and don’t proportion blame without knowing all the facts. Be courteous and remember some road users are working not on holidays
I have owned and towed caravans for over 45 years Les, and in that time we have almost lost our lives half a dozen times due to truck drivers being distracted, or nodding off at the wheel, and on the wrong side of the road, or overtaking and cutting us off and pushing us off the road. I don’t hate truck drivers at all. I am very weary of them, some have zero regard for other motorists.
Always put hazard lights on when last in a queue at roadworks.
Always.
And if you have a uhf on 40 let others know where the holdup is in case like this it’s just over a crest
One more thing I do personally is hang back if I am last so if anything goes pear shaped I don’t squash cars in front
Too many tailgaters these days. Not many follow the advised one car length behind for every 10kph. Often have others nearly run up the back of us even in a 40kph zone just before a stop/go point. A lot of drivers can’t stand being behind a high camper & put everyone at risk trying to get in front of us.
As a retired work health and safety professional I can assure you either the truckie or the traffic controller is in the wrong. If traffic is stopped for roadworks there must be a traffic management plan in place that should have all traffic slowed to at least 40 kph prior to reaching the stopped traffic. So there was either an inappropriate TMP or the truckie was not paying attention and speeding through the site. Even a road train will pull up very quickly at 40 kph. The Police no doubt get to the bottom of it.
Similar background as Neville Burt who is absolutely correct. I delivered training in this subject. The Traffic Management Plan (TMP) is based on an Australian Standard AS1742.
So manner times I see non-compliant traffic manage management at temporary work zones. Most of the non-compliance is about insufficient warning sign spacing for the given speed zone and this includes private, council and state government controlled work sites.
I have traveled right around Australia over the past few years and the only time compliance is used is when something goes wrong and the company needs a scale goat.
I try to see your point. But can’t agree in many instances. For example I attended a fatality on the Hume Hwy near Holbrook where a B Double driver was doing 100kph in a 40kph zone and drove straight over a 4WD killing a family of 4. The 4WD was stopped at a stop sign held by a traffic controller He was not fatigued. There was nothing wrong with his truck. He was not rushing to meet a timeframe. The Traffic Management Plan was correct. The truck driver was simply a speeding driver. Police took control of the scene he was charged and received a term in prison. I would not exactly call him a scape goat. He was an inattentive killer.
Pretty sure traffic controllers should have had signs at one km, 500 and 300 metres. I know that was the case in western QLD a couple of years ago
My motor home is a slow 10 tonne military truck built for power not speed, and I’m constantly checking my mirrors for the monster rigs that barrel up behind me often at 110 /120 km/hr. They don’t want to slow down in order to keep their momentum going up inclines (don’t blame them for that), by a slow poke like me. Sometimes they will come right up to within a few meters behind me, as if they can hurry me up by tailgating. I have had angry big rig drivers blast their horns in annoyance because they had to change lanes. When I see one coming up behind me on a single lane road at high speed, I often flash my brakes a few times. Not sure if it helps. Because I’m threatened often, I’ve become a little paranoid about the issue, and the unfortunate side of this, is that I’m checking my rear so often, it can potentially distract me from what’s going on in front. A lot of frustrated drivers out there (cars and truckers alike). Just thought I’d share.
I often have trucks up my rear, and cars pulling caravans.
It can happen anywhere it happened to us on the M1 from Brisbane to the Gold Coast all the traffic suddenly slowed down and the vehicle behind us hit us so hard our ute was written off and now we are stuck in Brisbane waiting to sort a new one out .
I had something similar happen when I was driving trucks. Came around a corner on a winding road and all traffic in front of me was stopped at a stop and go person. No warning before the corner. I was able to pull over to the wrong side of the road and apply brakes, stopping in a cloud of dust past a few of the stopped cars. I then got out and abused the road workers for not putting warning sign before the corner.
Many years ago we came across an accident similar to that. We decided there and there we would switch on our flashers to give the wake up signal to who ever comes from behind. In this case it’s was just the way it played out. Although I do think some of those road trains push things to the limit.
You all have forgotten the most important road rule, keep your eyes on the road IN FRONT OF YOU, Nothing will stop an in attentive driver hitting you. not even your hazard lights, Bare in mind most Company trucks have dash cameras front side and rear as well as GPS tracking, for good reason most insurance claims have dropped against truck drivers, the most common incident’s are some idiot cutting in to a trucks breaking distance at lights or intersections or trying to sneak around a corner on their blind side.
These truck drivers are Professionals, unlike Caravanners they have passed strict driving tests and must conform to tight ruthless log book requirements, I would like to know the full story from Police reports on this incident. Mean While KEEP YOUR EYES TO THE FRONT.
Some of us RV drivers are retired trained professional semi drivers. I drove for 40 years and retired with a clean record. There were and still are many cowboy truck drivers out there with doctored speed limiters who believe might is right
Even in the city I use my hazard lights if I stop at roadworks.
Sorry but truckie not driving safely. Signs warn of roadworks and speed drop signs. Seen many times where this is not observed by drivers.
Nobody has mentioned that the speed limit at road works is 40kph and for the truck to be going so fast indicates that it was not adhearing to the limit in place. Driving from Perth back to Qld in June at times I was the only person doing the speed limit in place. Was even passed by trucks and caravaners on roadworks.
When I’m stopped on a highway with bad visibility from the rear. I always call on UHF ch40 and let everyone know traffic is stopped heading north or south, naturally if it’s good line of sight for drivers coming up from behind there’s no need, however, you just have your brake lights on whilst waiting.
Some good points for the standard stop at a roadwork controlled point but non of them will have any use for a triple road train barreling over the crest of a hill. You really think a two landed road with traffic coming in the opposite direction is going to provide a safety area for you to pull into. Really, do you think your reflexes are quick enough and your car with a van attached is fast and powerful enough to avoid it? And that’s providing the road train driver in the emergency doesn’t decide to fill the same space you think you can get into.
I’ll throw my 5 cents worth in as well, most points have been fairly well covered here. However we own an old Pioneer Coach which is speed limited to 100kph as are most trucks, some companies run at 90kph. These speed limiters are set at an actual 100kph not a speedo indicated speed, even my old Hema 6 has the speed limit changed to 103kph to reflect this which is good.
Where am I going with this? A lot of caravanners travel at either indicated 90kph or some up near 100kph which is still well short of the actual. Yes some traffic control is ordinary and some people speed but when all the holes in the cheese line up its look out charlie.