Western Railroad Discussion > For the Want of Snacks...

Truck totaled, trains delayed and tow truck driver pulls hair out in frustration.

All this takes place on the Head of Bay curve near D street in downtown Tacoma. According to a man who spoke with the driver of the truck on the tracks, said driver bent down to get some beef jerky and failed to negotiated the curve, ending up between the Dock St (yard) lead and the Tacoma main.

The driver proceeded to leave the scene before the police arrived, leaving the tow truck driver to remove the pickup from the rails. A task that took more than an hour.

Rather entertaining to watch. Predictably, the pickup slide along the rails for quite some distance. Side effects including damage the utility box for the street light and snapping off the right front wheel.

Those of us watching were quite confident that the tow truck could have reached the location through the BNSF yard and removed the truck a lot faster and easier. There's a grade crossing across the yard lead, and the space between the yard lead and the Tacoma Main widens substantially. Hook a cable, drag it to the wide spot (about 4 vehicle lengths - as seen in the first photo) and load it on the flat bed.

Apologies for the quality. It was no place for a tripod and I'm still getting comfortable with shooting video on my Canon 6D.

Steve Carter
Gig Harbor, WA
My Photography

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You just gotta feel sorry for the tow truck driver after all those attempts of getting that truck off the rails

I'm sure that used to be a nice truck...

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

mojaveflyer Wrote:
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> I'm sure that used to be a nice truck...

Gives a whole new meaning to the term: "Ram Tough!"

mojaveflyer Wrote:
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> I'm sure that used to be a nice truck...


Is that what they mean by : "Ram Tough?"

That had better be some good beef jerky.

TCnR Wrote:
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> That had better be some good beef jerky.


I don't think the term, "jerky" applies only to the beef!

That's tonight's entertainment, thanks! However, I don't see how the truck is totaled.

Fizzboy7 Wrote:
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> That's tonight's entertainment, thanks! However,
> I don't see how the truck is totaled.



Looking at the way the wheel is bent in it's a safe bet the frame in this area is probably bent to. It may seem minor, but I'm going to explain why it was a good decision to total it and why it will probably turn into a nightmare for someone should it end up back on the road with what I was told years ago by my mechanic after an accident ( an 80 year old women pulled out in front of me ) I had with my '89 GMC at the time. He said that no frame straightening machine in any body shop anywhere can get it like it was when it left the factory. Just like the Ram in this photo, the wheel was bent in on mine and the insurance company recommended that it be totaled, but I decided to have it fixed.......BIG MISTAKE! The body shops can straighten it enough to bolt things back onto it but that's it. They can never get it as it was when it left the factory. Needless to say the '89 never would hold a front end alignment longer that 6 months at best and never rode smooth again for the remaining 5 years I had it afterwards. I believe the impact also caused the cab on my truck to "twitch" on the passenger side, oddly enough since the impact was on the drivers side. I could tell the door wasn't making a complete airtight seal, because I could sometimes hear the wind coming from that side when I was driving on the road and I could even visibly see the difference between when both doors were closed. At one point a few years after the accident, my mechanic had to unbolt the engine from the motor mounts for something ( I forget now what ) he called me and said they were having a time trying to get it lined back up with the motor mounts and I knew the problem could be traced back to the accident I had. Bottom line is, just because the Ram wasn't ripped apart and turned inside out by the impact doesn't necessarily mean it's still good to go. If it does end up back on the road, to avoid the same problem I had, the body shop better put a new frame under it, otherwise I feel real sorry for whoever gets it.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/14 05:18 by apollo17.

So what happened to the truck driver. Did he fly the coop?

Jim

Chooch Wrote:
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> So what happened to the truck driver. Did he fly
> the coop?
>
> Jim

Says in the original post that he left before the cops arrived....

The dis-advantage of legal recreational marijuana sales in Washington, no doubt! But we CAN USE THE TAX revenue.

Ed

And I thought that only California drivers were the Kings (and Queens) of inattentive and careless vehicle operation.

Auburn_Ed Wrote:
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> The dis-advantage of legal recreational marijuana
> sales in Washington, no doubt! But we CAN USE THE
> TAX revenue.
>
> Ed


Are you sure it wasn't alcohol?

That cabbage has a whooping cough...

By the way, the Prez himself has stated that alcohol is worse than pot. I don't exactly believe it, but at least pot is (supposedly) not addictive...

Tor in Eugene

A good frame repair shop, not body shop can repair the frame, if it's indeed bent/damaged. Skilled frame experts can do much better work than jack of all trades body men who just want to quickly get the truck out, and a insurance company that wants the work done cheaply.

I never did like Dodge Rams….Steve

Typical Dodge truck owner. Nothing to see here.

Yeah but that driver's in serious trouble once they find out who the truck belongs to!

coastdaylight Wrote:
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> A good frame repair shop, not body shop can repair
> the frame, if it's indeed bent/damaged. Skilled
> frame experts can do much better work than jack of
> all trades body men who just want to quickly get
> the truck out, and a insurance company that wants
> the work done cheaply.


You said that right! I live Columbus, GA. and there isn't a shop anywhere here that just specializes only in straightening an auto frame that's been bent or severely damaged in an accident. You only have two choices, the jack of all trades body men or total it out. There may be a shop like that in Atlanta, but most likely if the damage is bad enough to the frame, the insurance company is going to want to total it. Most likely if someone still wanted to save it and go the route of a specialized shop for that type of work, the insurance company would probably wash their hands of it and let the individual pay for everything. It's like you said, the body men want to get it done quickly and move on to the next one and the insurance company wants the work done as cheap as possible.