A semi-trailer being driven in Adelaide took to a footpath due to the driver passing out. A row of masonry fences brought the truck to a stand-still but not before a trail of destruction was left behind.

The driver said he fainted. This means he's not suitable to drive any vehicle on the road, and should have his licence suspended immediately.

Lets see the medical report. How many hours was he forced to drive? Heat not well handled causes fatigue: Many would not understand that.

Only in Australia do we seem to run down rail and be forced to run long haul on roads that are crap like most of them around me. There is really no reason other than its Australia, and we seem to like to be 20-30 years behind the rest of the world; For not having stuff for long haul, even the trailers on rail.

That cuts down truck fatigue accidents and them tearing up roads that they don't know how to build properly, unlike the Roman Empire.

Don't think he will get his truck drivers licence back in a hurry. No trucking company will touch him.

It was a miricle no one was killed.

I've fainted around half a dozen times in my life, fortunately never behind the wheel. Fainting can be caused by many things and even though this is severe, I wouldn't be so quick to say he should be off the road. In my experience, fainting can come about in a matter of seconds or over a few minutes but again, can be caused by one of many issues.

At the top of the scale of severity, if a driver has a known issue that can cause fainting and he doesn't declare it on his licence renewal, there are consequences, including time in gaol. But that may well not be the issue in this case.

Marc: It is often said that the Romans built better roads but the British built better buildings. I reckon that may be correct. The Coliseum is a wreck but the road around it is pot hole-free.

I agree that rail should be used more often. If governments hadn't let regional rail networks go to rack and ruin, we probably wouldn't be in the middle of building the Inland Railway at the moment. There's a few years left to go on that job. In the meantime, B-doubles and the newer pocket road trains that run between Sydney and Melbourne are providing government coffers with good revenues.

One thing I just noticed after watching again was the electrical substation about 30 metres beyond the end of the crash site. If the truck hit that it would have been interesting.

Glad I was not waiting for a bus!

It looks just like a movie stunt set, up the truck did well to stay upright.

Those poles must have a shear piece at the bottom just for this kind of occasion.

Fred.

Yes Fred,
The lightpoles are all designed with slip bases and usually have electrical connections that disconnect easily. Traffic light poles though, not so much. Done a good job not to hit one, not that he was trying not to.

I did a trip to Sydney in my early 20's with a truckie mate. High on pills, he gave me one and my heart began trying to jump out of my throat.

Scary, very scary, I seriously thought I was about to kick the bucket. He just laughed and called me a weak c***.

That was in the late 70,s, God knows what kind of crap they are swallowing now.

Crooked chemists all along the Hume in those days.

It would seem (to me at least) that things have not improved.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-03/eastern-freeway-truck-driver-mohinder-singh-pleads-guilty/12945872

I believe Ritolin was one of the pep pills they used to take. I am not sure of what today's fashions are.

Slip base? Never heard of that one. That said, no lamp post is going to hold back a truck with a maximum GVM of 68 tonnes. A car will bowl over the metal ones with no trouble. Same for traffic light posts. They are all held down with rag bolts buried in a concrete footing.

Yes traffic signal poles are just bolted to rag bolts and will just fold or tear at the welded base plate. Spent many a cold night dealing with poles down and standing new ones. Luckily my days of being on call are over. Every now and then the rag bolts can be damaged and a new footing is required. Some high risk intersections are becoming difficult as there are 2 or 3 old footings in the ground and no where for a new one. Joint used poles and ones with overhead mast arms can have 3 metre footings that are too hard to dig out and remove,

I actually love bollards: I did work at a Hume Highway service area the life of a bollard in a vertical position was lucky yo be a fortnight no matter what colour it was & one near a Dan Murphy Car park here has just been reinstalled.

Many short signs have a plastic insert to provide a snapping point & its rare to see none flattened on a trip to town.

They are doing an exercise at Glenrowan to ruin the entire ambience & history of the town by building an edifice bridge to clear the double stack trains. This claimed as efficiency. Yeh! lots of sacking needed their.

It is more like economy of scale. Efficiency would in truth, be lowering the gradient to take the stress off locos on one of of Australia's steeper gradients. I can see a train breaking up or stalling on the gradient. Of course, because of the run down infrastructure, to get freight to Melbourne & Sydney while they hired someone from overseas oversee lowering the two lines. All that is probably available is a single scenic likely run down, grain freight line that winds it way through southern NSW from The Rock across to Yarrawonga and into Benalla.

Think the Flouride in the water (brain poison like Lead) is working. The place is going mad (Romans use lead to send themselves mad).