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Worker killed by truck without driver at construction site

13 Comments

A 61-year-old construction worker died after he was pinned under the wheel of a driverless truck at the building site for a house in Yokohama's Aoba Ward on Friday morning.

According to police, the incident occurred at around 8:30 a.m., Yahoo News reported. The truck was parked on a slope and the man had his back to the truck.

Police said the truck's park brake somehow became disengaged and the truck rolled back down the slope, hitting the man who became caught under the back right wheel.

The worker was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

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13 Comments
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@lostrune2 I grew up in San Francisco, and learned to drive there. Turning your wheels into the curb--"curbing your wheels"--when parked on a hill was (and probably still is) required by law there. It was enforced fiercely, and the fine was not trivial.

Unfortunately, not all streets in Japan--or even in big cities such as Tokyo--have curbs. There are some very steep streets that have nothing more than a white line, if that, to separate the street from the "sidewalk". Even so, parking with the wheels turned away from the street's downhill slope would at least help minimize the distance--and maybe the damage--caused by a runaway vehicle.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The steering wheel could also be turned towards the curb

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Burning Bush:

Are you implying the vehicle's brakes were hacked? This is bad...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

For (non-air) drum brakes you need to use the brakes while going in reverse to adjust them.

Even if you use tire chocks (wedge-stops) to park on a hill -at some point you will need to use the brakes to take them out. = but that is a great test to see if those drum parking brakes are working. Leave truck on hill overnight with tire chock.

Most drum air brakes have slack adjusters built into the system = if they are slipping you are looking at service or replacement.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

It's a shame that a death should result from very basic err. Every truck should have chocks/blocks and use when parked, regardless of the terrain. Neglect!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I just hope there is an investigation into this so called accident, then his widow will get the right amount of compensation,

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I was also reminded of something that I saw a couple of weeks ago. A driver for one of the big delivery services had parked his truck on a slope. He carefully set chocks against each tire...on the uphill side. Somehow I don't think that retraining would solve the problem.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Sad and ironic that this article is next to one about driverless cars.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

If the truck was equipped with air brakes, then the driver did not apply the 'Park' brake (by pulling a red handle on the dash) before he got out of the cab.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Park brakes don't 'somehow' become disengaged. A sad start to a day at work.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Never give your back to any vehicle parked on a slope, specially, a driverless one. Rip.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

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