Ditched Beer!
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Brewery Heavy Articulated Unit Combination Comes Safely Through Mishap
IVES and a precious cargo were JL, saved recently when an experienced articulated unit driver was forced to leave the road with his Atkinson-York Freightmaster combination.
It was early morning on the A6 when the incident occurred about a mile south of Silsoe. Fog had cut visibility down to 15 yards or so, and W. A. Nicholson, a driver for Flowers Breweries, Ltd., was taking things slowly. Mr. Nicholson has a fine safety record, including several Safety First Diplomas from Ro.S.P.A. He was heading north, taking bottled beer from Luton to Grantham, and on his right, traffic heading south was heavy.
Off Line Suddenly, directly ahead, he saw a small family saloon car heading straight for him. The driver had obviously pulled Out to overtake the dense traffic in front of him, and was now unable to get back into line.
Mr. Nicholson acted promptly to minimize the results of an unavoidable collision and swung off to his left, on to the grass bank. His rapid reaction saved lives, but left his tractor and Freightmaster semi-trailer balanced precariously at a steep angle on the bank.
c22 The rest of the story is told by Col. J. Blyth, Group Transport Manager for Flowers Breweries, Ltd.:
"if our driver had not turned off the road immediately he would have met the car head-on. Injuries to the occupants of the car would have been much worse— indeed, it is highly likely that one or more would have been killed.
A Hawser "As soon as we learnt of the accident, we sent out another of our fleet of Freightrnasters to off-load the one down the bank. The angle of Nicholson's vehicle was so steep that we had to throw a hawser around the trailer to hold it from toppling over while the beer was transferred, Nothing Broken "We were delighted to discover that not one single bottle of beer was broken, despite the accident. Since acquiring our fleet of Freightmasters, we have already established that they will carry large payloads, with economy, and it came as no surprise to prove that they are rugged, too.
"We could find no evidence of any movement or misalignment of the trailer structure, and once we had the Freightmaster upright, we were quite happy to put her back into service."