OT - Picture comments.

The picture is of a large quarry/mine type dump truck that has run over a much smaller 4 wd vehicle. This particular comment asked, "Where do they get the morons that drive this stuff?" (The poster didn't specify which 'stuff' but from the tone my guess is he meant the dump truck driver. I could be wrong.)

Firstly, in almost ALL of the places where such large machines are used the MAIN traffic rule is that the machines have right of way at all times, with the possible exception of emergency vehicles.

Secondly, you could drive that 4 wd vehicle -- or could before it came to grief -- all around that dump truck close in to it and the only time the dump truck driver would be able to physically SEE it/you (Other than in his rear view mirrors.) would be as you drove past under his driver's side door. Given that visibility is that limited around these things, I would have thought it would be plain common sense (Which sadly seems to be getting less and less common.) to STAY OUT OF THEIR WAY.

You can see the picture in question at the link below. There are a couple of other similar photos on 'Stuck & Troubled' too.

Just my 2 cents.

You have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.

• Dump Truck Picture

I'm thinking about early retirement around Christmas or in the first half of next year even though I'm only 59 yet. I plan to keep pretty busy, but I have a sneaking feeling that I'll miss them from time to time.

You have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.

We have a few rules here on the farm... NEVER EVER pull up behind large equipment where the operator may not see you! Always assume that an operator CANNOT see you!!!! And, all equipment has blind spots! My brother backed the combine into Dad's P/U when my other brother pulled up right behind the combine and parked.

I do not think the photo is staged, I've see staged "action photo ops" and the smaller rig never comes out with that minor amount of physical damage. When staged they take the vehicle head on and ensure to run over the small one with both front and rear tires. The one I was invited to see was a Dresser 300 ton payload haul pac vs. a Ford crew cab PU. One pass and the highest elevation of any part of the Ford was eight inches.

Unfortunately accidents do happen. This type of accident is usually the fault of the smaller vehicle. To whom ever thinks it is easy to drive one of these, in a mining environment with dust, dirt, mud or snow collecting on your mirrors and windshield, not to mention sun glare and you will not hear other traffic or thier horn, well they just do not know.

As always whatever you work with, be safe!

ATW/WA

I used to think that there was a requirement for dump truck drivers to have at least a second grade education. Turns out I was wrong.

What???, I think you'd better do a bit of study. DUMP trucks come in many sizes and shapes. The bigger DUMP trucks usually work in quarries and mines -- where they DUMP whatever has been loaded into them.

Nobody ever said that the photo in question was taken on a public roadway or that it involved a road-going tip-truck.

If you had either READ my original post here or had anything much to do with these DUMP trucks, you might have gained some appreciation of just how LITTLE visibilty there is close in around them. Or alternatively, if I am mistaken and you have had a bit to do with these DUMP trucks, it would appear that you have a second-grade education because you don't sound like you've learned a lot from it.

It may have been a 'staged' accident. I have no way of knowing that. Staged or not, the warning is just as valid -- give these trucks a WIDE berth.

Just for your information, I have 38 1/2 years up now operating MANY different types of earth-moving and construction equipment of all sizes and have yet to have a lost-time or injury- or damage-causing accident -- with ANY of them. Add to that another 5 years on farm tractors and machinery before I turned to operating and three years while I was still going to high school operating the family 'dozer on the family farm, again all without accident or injury, and I think I have a pretty fair case for having at least a vague idea of what I am talking or writing about.

You have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.

Lot of the mines also have an office building somewhere centered in the site, requiring you to drive through or with those rigs. Good luck at figuring it out.

To be sure, most of those driveres don't seem able to read or obey instructions, as I've seen them routinely driving the wrong way because it was quicker for them to get out that way. Never mind there's another one coming down, or maybe it's you coming down the roadway, going the right direction.

Could be why so many of them have such badly battered cabs around here. Never seen a bunch of clods more determined to run into each other as those drivers are.