Near Miss, Lucky Day

[jeffgordons24]

So today I nearly got into what could have been a big accident.
We had a customers truck with a bad clutch. Now a truck with a bad clutch can be driven by a skilled driver, you can either start it in gear or throttle it in and once your rolling you don’t need the clutch. When you need to stop you shift into neutral.
So needless to say I don’t have anyone other than myself capable of doing this so I had to step in. All went well until I went to shift into neutral and the shift mount on the transmission let go (the owner drove it for a while with the clutch failing) and I couldn’t shift into neutral. Thinking quickly I turned off the key but the truck kept running (another shop had done some wiring for a trip logger and I found they crossed the acc and ign terminals)
Engaged the air park brakes, pumped the brakes did all I could to make it stall and it just kept going until I was running out of parking lot. As I nearer the apron of my lot I shifted focus to timing it just right and avoiding an accident. I was ready to take out my truck if I had to hit anything (this would be less paperwork) tried to honk the horn of course it didn’t work.
I somehow managed to bob and weave my way into the street barely missing 2 cars. So aside from a few a sore hand and ankles from pounding the brakes I made it out unscathed.

Conveniently none of my co-workers saw this take place when I got back and asked so I pulled the footage from my CCTV system.

[Mr Brown]

How'd you get it shut down?

[jeffgordons24]

How'd you get it shut down?

This customers fleet are all equipped with a battery disconnect switch next to the drivers seat, I puttered along and off to a side street and was able to open the door and kill the batteries.
Luckily we had another Mack at the shop with the same transmission, had one of my techs come to the side block with the shift detent and put it on there and drove it back to my shop.

[Kiwi Rider]

This customers fleet are all equipped with a battery disconnect switch next to the drivers seat, I puttered along and off to a side street and was able to open the door and kill the batteries.
Luckily we had another Mack at the shop with the same transmission, had one of my techs come to the side block with the shift detent and put it on there and drove it back to my shop.

Phewww!!!
That was close mate!
Disaster in the making right there . . . thank goodness it all worked out OK.
Some quick thinking on your part, a natural due to the Busa piloting skills and experience

[Mr Brown]

Had the brakes fail on a loaded concrete truck once. That was enjoyable. Not. Shut the ignition off to stop. Turned over a frameless dump trailer one time as well. Breakaway bolts had been replaced with grade 8s so it took the tractor with it. Also not fun.

[greg3852]

Damn you got lucky. I always used to start in at least 3rd and rarely use the clutch. Haven’t driven in a while. Only crashed one straight truck. Into a motorcycle as luck would have it. Nearly killed the kid. In my Defense he was on my side of the road riding a wheelie.

[bussassin417]

DUDE !!!!

I'm glad there were no accidents.

I would have had 3 or more "accidents" in my pants.

Awesome quick thinking.

Hope your never tested like THAT again.

DUDE !!!!

[Bumblebee]

I noted the idiots in the vehicles on the road were not paying attention very well....they almost hit you.

It's sad to think all that could be wrong with a commercial vehicle and it still be on the road-those things kill people.

Glad you made it out of there intact.

[Mr Brown]

It's sad to think all that could be wrong with a commercial vehicle and it still be on the road-those things kill people.

If people knew, they wouldn't drive anywhere near them on the highway. Even the best maintained trucks have parts that will fail, and some of the trucks on the road and even close to well maintained.

[c10]

Holly cow Steven ! Very happy no one was hurt .

[Red05]

Wow that was hair raising to watch, can't imagine what it was like to be in that truck. You did well to minimize damage. Yellow09 is right, those two cars were not driving defensively, perhaps even distracted. Glad it worked out.