Who's responsible??

reilig

A lorry came off the road close to our house yesterday. The road is narrow, he put a wheel on the edge of the road and it gave way and rolled it over on its side. It slipped down about a 30ft drop into a drain in a bog field on its roof. It was a readymix lorry with 9 meters of concrete on it. Luckily my father wasn't too far away and he managed to pull the dazed driver through the front window before the cab filled with water.

The land belongs to an elderly neighbour and we wouldn't like to see him being taken advantage of. The lorry owners asked him for permission to enter the field, byt looking at it, its going to be a hell of a job to get it out. The cab of the lorry and the full bottle on the back are already sunken under ground this morning. There's no room for a crane to work - and the road would not hold up one anyway. It looks like they will have to go in and dig it out, cut the bottle off the back of it and somehow get it out of the swamp that its in. The lorry owners are being a bit cheeky. They are blaming the council for the road giving way. One guy has already said that it shoild be the council's responsibility to get it out and reinstate the guy's field, which i'm sure by now they have traversed with a lot of heavy machinery and are beginning to dig.

Who is responsible? I wouldn't like to see my neighbour being taken advantage of.
The owners seem to be taking responsibility for the removal of teh lorry, but i don't know if they will reinstate.

C0N0R

I would imagine it's the lorry drivers fault. Interesting situation though! Sounds like a wrecking match getting the lorry out. Maybe the landowner shouldn't give permission until he has word about who is going to reinstate his land.

whelan1

put a lock on the gate asap , until thay decide who pays, we locked the esb out and they wheren't long about paying up for the damage they did

Bitten & Hisses

whelan1 wrote: »

put a lock on the gate asap , until thay decide who pays, we locked the esb out and they wheren't long about paying up for the damage they did

+1 on this. Nasty situation for all involved, but that doesn't give anyone the right to destroy someone's land. The recovery effort will most likely involve track machines of some sort, so it shouldn't kill them to reinstate the ground.

Muckit

I think a bit of goodwill is what's needed here. I'm sure the poor lorry driver had so intention in coming off the road in the first place. Accidents happen, and I'm sure if it was any farmers jeep and trailer that came off the road, there wouldbe no issue about helping out

I'm sure. as you say, they'I need a track machine to pull/dig him out? Well then, while the digger is there can't he level off the tracks made?amd I'm sure a genuinely helpful neighbour of this poor elderly man could hook up a chain harrow and level if off as needed?;) Shake a bit of grass seed and job done.

A little bit of give and goodwill goes a long way. The wheel doesn't be long turning and who knows when it might be ourselves in need of some help and compassion some day.......

nilhg

Lorry driver is responsible, and I'd presume it'll be his insurance company that'll be paying, from Reilig's description I'd imagine there's going to be a huge amount of damage to the field, it won't just be a matter of covering in the tracks.

First thing I'd do is get down there with a camera and record things before any lifting is done (please please post some pics here:D) and then I'd get a professional in to represent the land owner.

red menace

+1 on the pics

A concrete Lorry came off the road at home some years back.
Ended up going over a bridge into a shallow river, well ended up on the bank really.
Big job to get it out.
In the end they just cut the barrel off the truck and left it down there.
So your neighbour might end up with one hell off a land roller!

reilig

I don't know if they went about taking it out today because I have been at work all day. I'll pass on the info to the land owner. Thanks for advice guys.

Muckit

Muckit wrote: »

I think a bit of goodwill is what's needed here. I'm sure the poor lorry driver had so intention in coming off the road in the first place. Accidents happen, and I'm sure if it was any farmers jeep and trailer that came off the road, there wouldbe no issue about helping out

I'm sure. as you say, they'I need a track machine to pull/dig him out? Well then, while the digger is there can't he level off the tracks made?amd I'm sure a genuinely helpful neighbour of this poor elderly man could hook up a chain harrow and level if off as needed?;) Shake a bit of grass seed and job done.

A little bit of give and goodwill goes a long way. The wheel doesn't be long turning and who knows when it might be ourselves in need of some help and compassion some day.......

Look of course if there is alot of rooting done and it's going to cost an arm and a leg to put thing right, things will have to put right and paid for by those concerned. The way I'd look at it though is that Thank God nobody was injured. Land will be there after us all, not so easy replace people:rolleyes:

pakalasa

I knew a lorrydriver, that this happened to before. They ended up going into the barrell with jack-hammers to salvage it. Took a lot of work.
+1 on the pics too.

snowman707

pakalasa wrote: »

I knew a lorrydriver, that this happened to before. They ended up going into the barrell with jack-hammers to salvage it. Took a lot of work.
+1 on the pics too.

Think i know the one you are referring to, think it took 2 jack hammers 4 days to empty the drum,

this one 30 feet under the road and submerged, with no access for a crane , not an easy one

reilig

Problem solved. The lorry owners got in a local contractor with 3 20 ton track machines. They cut the bottle off the back of it, pulled it out and flipped it back on its wheels. They worked off timber mats which protected the soft ground. The bottle is stail in the drain, but they are going to dig a hole beside it and bury it in situ as it is too heavy to move (and its worthless anyway - they have all pieces cut off it that were salvageable). Council have agreed to pay the contractor for the reinstatement of the land.

red menace

Good news, good to hear of it working out for your neighbour

Dunedin

any pictures to share

EAFC_rdfl

reilig wrote: »

Problem solved. The lorry owners got in a local contractor with 3 20 ton track machines. They cut the bottle off the back of it, pulled it out and flipped it back on its wheels. They worked off timber mats which protected the soft ground. The bottle is stail in the drain, but they are going to dig a hole beside it and bury it in situ as it is too heavy to move (and its worthless anyway - they have all pieces cut off it that were salvageable). Council have agreed to pay the contractor for the reinstatement of the land.

that'll be some hole when its dug!

reilig

EAFC_rdfl wrote: »

that'll be some hole when its dug!

To be honest, I'd say that if they tapped it enough times down with the bucket of the digger, it would go down, the ground is so soft.

snowman707

reilig wrote: »

Problem solved. The lorry owners got in a local contractor with 3 20 ton track machines. They cut the bottle off the back of it, pulled it out and flipped it back on its wheels. They worked off timber mats which protected the soft ground. The bottle is stail in the drain, but they are going to dig a hole beside it and bury it in situ as it is too heavy to move (and its worthless anyway - they have all pieces cut off it that were salvageable). Council have agreed to pay the contractor for the reinstatement of the land.

have you any details of the timber mats? , they must be well equipped for bog work.

reilig

snowman707 wrote: »

have you any details of the timber mats? , they must be well equipped for bog work.

I sure do, cause when I was younger, I used to work with this particular contractor and I was involved in putting them together. he's being using the same ones for 10 years now. i couldn't believe that they were still together when I saw them yesterday.

He got the timber for the mats specially sawed from larch. Each plank is 6 inches thick and 10 inches wide, and approximately 30 foot long (more suited to a 13 ton machine than to a 20 ton)

4 planks in each mat. All mats are bolted together with a pin that goes through the centre of each plank at about 5ft intervals. There's a steel band around all sides of the mat for protection. Each machine needs 4 mats. The mats are easy to pick up with any type of a bucket and you can leave them in front of you as you want to move forward. IYKWIM

Mats are for working on rather than travelling over all the time - you will find that a track machine will cross wet ground once without doing too much damage, but when it is moving forward and back over the one spot, the ground gets very tender and it starts to muck up and the machine starts to go down. Setting up mats for yourself prevents any damage to the ground.