I love American car culture; it’s the best in the world. We rarely have safety inspections, many states don’t have emissions checks, and therefore you can drive damn near anything you want on public roads. It’s absolutely fantastic, and a boon to car culture, even if I do think there are some cars that really shouldn’t be on our roadways. Among those are trucks with improperly secured loads — which I see all the time here in LA.
I generally believe that rules tend to slide down a slippery slope, getting out of hand like they do in Australia. There, you can’t even put a damn lift kit on your vehicle without worrying about getting pulled over, engine swaps are difficult, and safety inspections are overly strict. There’s a weird divide between city folks and rural folks when it comes to car culture, with the former wanting strict rules and the latter being among the most authentic car enthusiasts on earth, living and breathing guzzoline, and coining Nobel Prize-worthy advancements in human civilization like the Shed Skid.
Here in most of the U.S., we have the opposite situation that Australian car fans have: anything goes. I like it, for the most part, but I do think we should have some basic mandatory inspections (though, like I said, I realize it’s a slippery slope), and I think we could stand to adopt Australia’s load-securing guidelines/enforcement strategy, which are quite strict. In fact, there’s a 20+ page document from 2018 called the “Load Restraint Guide,” and it gets into some serious detail on this topic:
Too Many Avoidable Crashes Are A Result Of Unsecured Loads
Before we jump into that, let’s take a step back. According to the U.S. government (NHTSA, specifically), “Each year, about 730 people are killed and 17,000 more are injured because of objects in the road. Most of these crashes (81%) involve unsecured loads on passenger vehicles.”
AAA also had some less than ideal statistics to share in its 2016 press release titled “American Drivers Aren’t Securing Their Loads on the Road.” From AAA:
More than 200,000 crashes involved debris on U.S. roadways during the past four years, according to a new study released by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. Road debris has resulted in approximately 39,000 injuries and more than 500 deaths between 2011 and 2014. AAA is calling for drivers to properly secure their loads to prevent dangerous debris.
The press release discusses the nature of the crashes, stating:
- Nearly 37 percent of all deaths in road debris crashes resulted from the driver swerving to avoid hitting an object. Overcorrecting at the last minute to avoid debris can increase a driver’s risk of losing control of their vehicle and make a bad situation worse.
- More than one in three crashes involving debris occur between 10:00 a.m. and 3:59 p.m., a time when many people are on the road hauling or moving heavy items like furniture or construction equipment.
- Debris-related crashes are much more likely to occur on Interstate highways. Driving at high speeds increases the risk for vehicle parts to become detached or cargo to fall onto the roadway.
I know these may seem like relatively low numbers, but those are avoidable casualties. We can’t have stuff flying out of our cars on roadways — it’s just idiotic. AAA agrees, writing:
“This new report shows that road debris can be extremely dangerous but all of these crashes are preventable,” said Jurek Grabowski, research director for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. “Drivers can easily save lives and prevent injuries by securing their loads and taking other simple precautions to prevent items from falling off the vehicle.”
About two-thirds of debris-related crashes are the result of items falling from a vehicle due to improper maintenance and unsecured loads. The most common types of vehicle debris are:
- Parts becoming detached from a vehicle (tires, wheels, etc.) and falling onto the roadway
- Unsecured cargo like furniture, appliances and other items falling onto the roadway
- Tow trailers becoming separated and hitting another vehicle or landing on the roadway
States Have Rules Against Unsecured Loads
Here’s the thing, though: It’s not like there aren’t rules on the books; NHTSA spells it out:
All 50 states and the District of Columbia have laws regarding unsecured loads. Additionally, drivers are always responsible for safe operation of their vehicle – this includes properly securing anything that could separate from your vehicle, creating dangerous obstacles on the road. Laws state that cargo should be tied down in such a way as to prevent anything from dropping, shifting, leaking or otherwise escaping the vehicle. Violation of unsecured-load laws carry state-specific penalties with fines up to $5,000.
The state of California, for example, states it bluntly on its Office of Traffic Safety website, writing: “California law is clear – every vehicle that travels on every publicly maintained road must have a secured load.” The site has a press release breaking the issue down and discussing California law as it relates to unsecured loads (apparently there’s a $200 fine for unsecured loads even if nothing falls out of your vehicle). The press release mentions “Secure Your Load Day” on June 6:
We’ve all seen it: a car with a mattress tied to the roof that looks anything but secure, a pickup truck with a bed overflowing with materials, or worse: that same mattress, piece of debris or other cargo falling onto the roadway, even smashing the windshield of an unsuspecting driver.
Unsecure loads that fall from moving vehicles is such a hazardous and frequent occurrence that many states, including California, have designated June 6 as “Secure Your Load Day” to raise awareness about the dangers of unsecured loads.
According to a 2016 study by the AAA Foundation for Safety, nearly 80,000 crashes between 2011 and 2014, or more than a third of all debris-related crashes, were caused by debris falling from unsecured loads. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, at 55 miles per hour, an object weighing just 20 pounds that falls from a vehicle strikes with an impact of half a ton.
For some, improperly secured loads resulted in tragic consequences that will last a lifetime. When Washington resident Robin Abel’s daughter was severely injured by an unsecured load in 2004, she began raising awareness about the importance of securing vehicle loads.
The California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) joins Abel, California, and 45 other states, along with the U.S. Virgin Islands, to acknowledge “Secure Your Load Day” and educate the public about the simple precautions people can make that saves lives.
“Unsecure loads pose a serious threat to the safety of drivers,” said OTS director Rhonda Craft. “If whatever you are carrying has even the slightest chance of coming loose or falling out of your car or truck, think of the people driving behind you and the damage your unsecure load can cause.”
As for specific laws, I found section 23114a in the California Vehicle code, which says that anything other than water or feathers should not fall out of your vehicle:
Except as provided in Subpart I (commencing with Section 393.100) of Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations related to hay and straw, a vehicle shall not be driven or moved on any highway unless the vehicle is so constructed, covered, or loaded as to prevent any of its contents or load other than clear water or feathers from live birds from dropping, sifting, leaking, blowing, spilling, or otherwise escaping from the vehicle.
As for vehicles doing garbage runs (or heading to “the dump” in the U.S., which is called “the tip” in Australia), the whole load actually has to be covered, per section 23115a in the California vehicle code:
No vehicle transporting garbage, swill, used cans or bottles, wastepapers, waste cardboard, ashes, refuse, trash, or rubbish, or any noisome, nauseous, or offensive matter, or anything being transported for disposal or recycling shall be driven or moved upon any highway unless the load is totally covered in a manner that will prevent the load or any part of the load from spilling or falling from the vehicle.
I’ve Seen Some Sketchy Stuff, And I Bet You Have, Too
So yes, there are rules. But as NHTSA and AAA pointed out, there are still far too many unsecured load-related crashes in the U.S., and I’m not surprised. Really, the only reason why I’m writing this article is that I’m regularly sketched-out by what I see on roads around LA. Like, this Nissan Frontier? Come on:
And look at all the random stuff in the back of this Ram:
This Nissan has a couple of bungee cords hooked to its wheel arches, but that’s about all:
This Super Duty has a bunch of junk just sitting in the bed, unsecure:
This Ram is a bit better, with a couple of straps holding the ladders in place:
And this Ram… well, it has a single small ratchet strap holding two couches in place — it works, but it’s not ideal, really. I’d throw a second one on there for good measure:
Look, I’m not trying to be a nark, and I myself have been guilty of improperly tying up loads in my vehicles. I’m not trying to create more rules and regulations; lord knows we have enough of them, and we don’t want to be like Australia, where you can’t even have your arm out the window when you drive. But this is just easy.
Here are NHTSA’s tips for securing loads:
Tips for Securing Your Cargo Properly
- Tie it down with rope, netting or straps.
- Tie large objects directly to your vehicle or trailer.
- Consider covering the entire load with a sturdy tarp or netting.
- Do not load excessive amounts of cargo in or on your vehicle or trailer.
- Always double-check your load to make sure it’s secure.
Ask Yourself
- Is there any chance of debris or cargo falling or blowing out of my vehicle?
- Is my load secured at the back, sides, and top?
- What would happen to my load if I had to brake suddenly, if I hit a bump, or if another vehicle hit me?
- Would I want my loaded vehicle driving through my own neighborhood?
- Would I feel safe if I were driving behind my vehicle?
Here’s AAA’s advice:
- Cover your load with a tarp, including loose items like gravel, mulch, grass, or dirt and secure it tightly to your vehicle.
- Use bungee cords and ratchet tie-downs for large items, fastening them directly to your vehicle or trailer. Use a cargo net for smaller, variable-sized items.
- Stack lighter items on lower and heavier items on top to keep loads stable.
- Never overload your vehicle or rely solely on cramming, as tightly packed items can still fly loose if not properly tied down.
- Tug and push on the load, as well as on tie-downs and netting, to ensure items stay in place.
In addition, AAA mentions tying a red flag to overhanging items, and AAA has some advice on rope-type:
… for bungee cords, they may work well at securing lighter items but generally come in handy for securing excess tarp and preventing it from flapping. Never secure a heavy load using bungee cords alone. If using rope, check to ensure that the condition of your rope is in good shape before securing your load, as rope tends to fray over time and can easily snap when tension is applied.
Now let’s talk about Australia’s rules — the ones in the aforementioned 20-page Load Restraint Guide.
Australia’s Load Restraint Guidelines
I spoke with Autopian contributor and friend Laurence Rogers about what I experienced when I met him almost two years ago: Australians are serious about securing loads. Every time Laurence would put something in the “tray” of his ute, he’d cover it. “What’s the deal with that?” I asked him. “That thing that you put in your bed isn’t likely to fall out.”
“It’s just the rules, mate,” he’d reply.
And indeed, the rules are no joke.
I’m not going to list off everything in the 20-page guide, but it starts by mentioning the basics:
You must restrain any load you are carrying on a light vehicle
so that it:– Stays on the vehicle during normal driving conditions –
this includes heavy braking, cornering, acceleration and
even minor collisions.– Doesn’t negatively affect the stability of the vehicle,
making it difficult or unsafe to drive.– Doesn’t protrude from the vehicle in a way that could
injure people, damage property or obstruct others’ paths.You must pick up any fallen load if it is safe to do so,
or arrange for someone to retrieve it.
This is all pretty straightforward stuff, though the next section about performance standards is a little more complex.
LOADING PERFORMANCE STANDARDS
(1) A driver must not drive or tow a vehicle carrying a load unless:
(a) the load is restrained so that it can not move relative to the
vehicle, other than as permitted under (2); and
(b) the load is restrained by a system that, at a minimum,
prevents the load from moving in the circumstances stated
in (3).(2) A load may be permitted to move relative to the vehicle if:
(a) the stability and weight distribution of the vehicle can not
be adversely affected by the movement; and
(b) the load can not become dislodged from the vehicle.
Examples of loads permitted to move under (2)
• loads contained, held, protected or enclosed within the
sides or enclosure of a part of the vehicle and restrained
from moving horizontally
• loads consisting of very light objects, or loose bulk loads,
that are contained, held, protected or enclosed within the
sides or enclosure of a part of the vehicle
• loads consisting of bulk liquids that are contained, held,
protected or enclosed within the sides or enclosure of a part
of the vehicle(3) For (1)(b), the circumstances are that the vehicle is subjected to:
(a) any of the following, separately:
(i) 0.8 g deceleration in a forward direction;
(ii) 0.5 g deceleration in a rearward direction;
(iii) 0.5 g acceleration in a lateral direction; and
(b) if friction or limited vertical displacement is relied on to
comply with (a), 0.2 g accelerat
There’s lots of good stuff in that guide, including a description of various restraint methods:
And here’s a nice guide visual on how strap angle affects tie-down effectiveness, with 35 degrees being the minimum recommended strap angle (the guide recommends stacking stable packaging material to raise that angle, if necessary).
“In New South Wales it’s a $457 AUD fine and 3 demerit points for an unsecured load,” Laurence told me. “Our licence has up to 13 points available so it’s a big hit to the old licence.”
Laurence showed me his go-to strategy for securing of loads:
“Cargo nets/covers are required if you have lots of small items that are hard to strap down,” he told me. What you see above held tightly against a full interior set for a HQ Monaro coupe looks like a tarp, but it’s technically a vented net that doesn’t flap like a tarp would.
As for the holding the netting/load down, it’s all about straps, Laurence tells me. “Rope is all but verboten these days…Rope must be load rated and have markings to indicate such if it’s a load of any appreciable size/weight.”
A very long time ago I experienced the most bizarre incident. Travelling westbound on the 401 Highway in Toronto in the centre of 3 lanes. A mid-70’s Full size wagon passed on the left. It had one of those door/tailgate combination things at the back. This opened to the side and a large metal tool box hopped out onto the road. This was just ahead of us. We drove on, trying to get away from the impending carnage.
So many questions
1. If we had safety inspections would any of David Tracy’s pre California cars been permitted on the road? I see a different universe where he has a bicycletopian website.
2. It says 81% of the accidents are a result of passenger cars losing their loads. So not pickups.
3. We already have the rules perhaps enforcing them is the problem. Like gun crimes arrest and in prison for criminals instead of not letting innocent people not allowed guns?
4. California requires all vehicles to have a secure load? Maybe allow drivers who don’t need to transport anything the right to be load free instead of requiring a secure load? Just thinking outside the box.
5. I am also for requiring all drivers being licensed and insured and not selling or allowed ownership unless licensed and insured because we don’t see the accidents of illegal drivers driving unreliable vehicles.
Perhaps what we really need is some Thai native people to come to the USA and teach us how they secure everything from a three bedroom house on a moped? I mean we love and respect them for being so amazing but we are only worried about our citizens for safety right?
This is why I honestly prefer van/SUV for loose items. I use a rooftop cargo bag when needed, always secured by ratchet straps. I do own a hitch mount cargo carrier but am VERY cautious using it.
Well if you don’t secure the load in the van you will be the one getting hurt. Before Ford got that cage and cargo protector kit driving a cargo van was like a live ammo exercise even without an accident.
Better you (the one responsible for the unsecured load) than some innocent bystander/driver (whose only sin was driving on the same road as you). Individual responsibility and all that.
We now have the level of untied junk piled up to get pulled over!
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I was behind a pickup truck with a load of lumber that was longer than the bed plus tailgate. Completely unsecured. We were stopped at a slight uphill light. And knowing what was about to happen I just stayed put when the light turned green. Sure enough, the entire load slid backwards, but fortunately not enough fall completely out. But at least the driver noticed and stopped to get out and do something about it. Long enough ago that it was a gas vehicle, with an EV truck and the acceleration available, the load probably would have hit the ground flat.
Easy way to unload though. You don’t even have to reverse first.
David, you missed the most important part of securing your load in Australia. After tying everything down you MUST give it a quick shake and say “That’s not going anywhere”. Otherwise your load will definitely fly off.
Reference: https://www.betootaadvocate.com/humans-of-betoota/man-loses-entire-trailer-load-after-forgetting-to-say-that-it-wasnt-going-anywhere/
Stay off I-35 in Texas, besides the horribly secured bed loads, you also have the auto auction car trains heading to Mexico. 2, sometimes 3 damaged cars with bumpers pulled and harbor freight tow bars and hitches connecting them together and dragging them along.
Someone at the AAMVA just woke up with a cold sweat. 🙂
Reminds me of the ‘scrappers’ that drive around picking up metal and items from curbs and alleys taking to a recycling yard for $. Those trucks are always beat down, bald tire, rotten bed mount, exhaust leaking heaps with scrap piled high. Sometimes they have plywood sides to contain the load. Never seen any enforcement- even with bad or no plates.
We have a few like that around these parts. The people doing the scrapping are often supporting their meth habit. They’ve been in jail several times, own nothing but that uninsured/unlicensed truck they’re driving (and even that may be borrowed), are effectively “judgement proof” and the local cops are simply sick of dealing with them. Compound this with the fact that the county jail is overflowing already and the lack of enforcement is often just the cops not knowing what they’re going to do with the idiots after pulling them over.
If said meth-heads are suspected of transporting more than the scrap (in other words were ratted out by one of their brethren), they’ll be pulled over. I know some of the cops as well as some of the meth-heads engaging in this county-wide cat and mouse (who also know each other) and it’s an interesting balance for sure.
Yes indeed, well said. Once they started enforcing the stolen catalytic converters thing here at scrap yards & then some attention on local news about the issue, the cops got more involved. But I’m not hearing of it these days. Funny how the trucks all look they have been in a demo derby for some reason..
So a random thing I was told I never verified that I’m sure the Internet will correct me on.. I was told that insurance will only cover something hitting your vehicle that fell of a trailer/truck IF it doesn’t touch the ground first.. almost like a 5-second rule for liability.
How can they prove it hit the ground first if they weren’t there to see it?
Angle of deflection depth of damage. That does not mean the driver and his company isn’t liable just the insurance company
One night I was driving down a pitch-black highway in the Sacramento valley. There was almost no traffic, I was probably going about 80, and there was another vehicle in my lane just close enough that I can clearly see their taillights. The car suddenly jumps a couple feet in the air and there is a massive shower of debris. As I pass by the wreckage, I see that it (was) a black, full-size sofa that was sitting in the middle of the highway.
I pulled over to check on the driver and he was fortunately ok, but still freaked out yelling “what in the fuck was that” over and over. His mid-90s Olds 88 was destroyed. Once he calmed down, he got a good laugh that he broadsided an entire fucking couch on the highway and thanked himself for getting it out of the way for me. It certainly could have been a lot worse!
Back in the late 70’s teens we’re putting console televisions in the middle of the road to watch cars collide with them. David E Davis from Carol and Driver ruined their custom Mercedes wagon hitting one.
Cargo should always be tied down correctly cause that’s the manly way to roll but never underestimate the evil in people’s minds.
Screw that I’m just going up this mountain and down the other side I’m sure everything will be fine.
LOL!
I knew of some kids who used to stand on a bridge overpass and drop bricks on cars below. I hated the guys after I learned this several years after.
Can’t blame you.
If the existing laws aren’t being enforced, and they aren’t, what the hell good would more laws do?
I agree about the problem, but more laws won’t do anything if we don’t educate our stupid population and prioritize enforcement.
This article feels like a direct attack on San Antonio
Gulf states after a hurricane.
Ever since the Alamo San Antonio is just getting screwed. Most people don’t know this but the battle of the Alamo was a disagreement over whose horse popped in the road causing a 4 wagon pile up in the down town area and who had to clean up the sheet.
But its a direct attack on LA. David is amazed at the stuff he sees on the freeway since he moved to LA, much like I was when I moved there from NY. Ladders, couches, wheelbarrows, and garbage cans litter the sides of LA freeways.
Once you notice all the stuff on the side of the road you look towards the source, and OMG you become shocked.
As you point states have secure load laws, the laws (for various reasons) are not enforced. Adding new laws will not make up for the lack of enforcement and instead will become a gotcha for an angry/bored cop to get you decades later.
I guarantee that if every single time a cop saw an unsecured load and pulled them over and ticketed, they would stop within a few days.
No they wouldn’t. They’d vote out the mayor and replace them with someone who would drop the enforcement.
Or those ticketed would just be encouraged to dump the stuff on vacant lots or in alleys to avoid risking a ticket.
Unfortunately illegal dumping is a huge problem where I am, even when we have free “dump your own” where you can just pull up and throw everything out however often you want, yet people still break the law.
I have a feeling that alot of the trucks with an unsecured load are also doing something else illegal. Anecdotally I notice alot of missing licence plate vehicles, heck I even found a old Tacoma running temp tags from 2019 recently. I’m just mad that enforcement of all motoring laws except speeding is nonexistent here.
Understood.
“More than one in three crashes involving debris occur between 10:00 a.m. and 3:59 p.m.”
Is this statistically significant? 35% of these incidents happening in 25% of a day actually seems low considering they happen in the middle of daylight hours.
Work hours where crap is being hauled.
There are existing laws for all of this. The issue is not having the rules it is enforcing them.
Sad but true most police officers in the US have zero idea of what load and trucking rules are, so they never get enforced.
You are not wrong it needs to improve but bro, where do you get off writing articles about safety?
You have written articles about choosing to drive with an active fuel leak and other safety nightmares.
Hey! That fire was adequate secured, there was only slight risk of the fire falling off the Mustang and in to the path of another vehicle.
I’m sure Torch will have a word about consistent application of safety to Autopian articles just as soon as he’s finish chainsawing up some lead acid batteries.
Most cops have no desire to do traffic enforcement. In Houston they all want to work for criminal division so that criminal division is 100% staffed with a waiting list and traffic is at half staff. I once waited 2 hours for a cop to show up for an accident with a runaway two hours. Was finally told go to a station and make a report. Got to the station was told changeover come back tomorrow. I told an entire police station f you I want to file a report now. I was allowed and wasn’t arrested.
The no arms out the window thing just makes sense. Because what if your car is a time machine traveling into the future?
No one wants a fossil elbow.
Australia: deadly spiders in every toilet.
Also Australia: keep your arms inside the ride at all times.
Perhaps the two are related?
“I hung my arm out the window of my car wand was bitten by a giant spider hiding behind my side mirror!“
Mirror spiders are the worst. It’s somehow the perfect environment for them to thrive in despite never once having seen one catch anything. You can’t even jetwash them out.
“There, you can’t even put a damn lift kit on your vehicle without worrying about getting pulled over, engine swaps are difficult, and safety inspections are overly strict.”
Maybe so in the eastern states. Here in the land of the O-Bahn and Farmers Union Iced Coffee, there are precisely zero safety inspections, unless you are unlucky enough to be pulled over for another offence, then have your vehicle defected. Once you have been defected, getting it back on the road can be a challenge.
While the rules around securing loads may be strict, the enforcement (again, at least where I live) is not. (They only bother booking people for speeding as it’s highly mechanised and easy to prove. But I digress.) I was driving home on motorway one afternoon following a truck, which was following a Ute and trailer, which was carrying an ensemble bed base. The bed base came off the trailer and was collected by the truck at 100km/hr. Good job I was a good distance behind the truck or I would have been showered with the cloud of splintered pine and polyester wadding that was generated.
So how in the hell did they get that UTE monstrosity approved. I think they had every part from a different vehicle.
3 seperate vehicles in succession. A Ute, towing a trailer (which had a bed in it), then a truck (not a pick up, a heavy truck) following that.
David – whenever you write about safety, I think about this piece that you wrote: https://www.theautopian.com/what-it-was-like-driving-my-worn-out-1966-ford-mustang-2500-miles-from-detroit-to-los-angeles/
Cheapness triumphed over safety
Does the code mean those gravel trucks that claim “not responsible for windshield breakage” are actually liable?
They actually are liable for things that follow up their truck. The signs are bogus.
But…. Good luck, proving the gravel came off that truck.
^fall off their truck. Darn autocorrect
They are just threatening to sue especially when they have no cover
Aussie here.
The quality of your car and whether you can drive it on a road really depends on where you are at the time. In the city? – Make sure it’s road worthy. Out bush in the middle of nowhere on some cattle Station? – if it has 4 wheels and usually stops and turns when you want it to then almost anything goes.
As toy securing your load then yeah… its better to do that. I once had a plumber pull out of a side street in front of me. I had to swerve into oncoming traffic to avoid the accident but as he slammed on his brakes, all his piping and gear on his racks above his vehicle roof slide off onto the road as they obeyed Newton’s laws of motion.
Further down the road I’m stopped at the traffic lights and he gets out of his truck behind and gives me a load of abuse for causing his load to fall off…! Go figure.
Lastly it’s a good idea because Australia’s road death toll sits at less than 2000 per year for the entire country, while the USA has around 40 000 per year. Even allowing for population proportional adjustment, the USA is fantastically high. Securing your load can go a long way to reducing that.
It is all just about marketing. Two situations…
1. Secure your load. If something falls off it might inconvenience or hurt some person who you don’t even know. PASS
2. Secure your load of it shifts or falls off you are getting a $1,000 fine and spending 8 hours cleaning up and reloading with an inspection that it is secure this time. OKAY I’M ON BOARD
I bought a nice cargo net made of webbing with a mesh center section. It’s been a great investment in keeping cargo secure in my pickup or on my utility trailer.
I’ve been the victim of unsecured cargo, hit a snowblower that fell out of a dump truck in front of me. It bent in the bumper of my pickup pretty bad and got wedged under the front crossmember. Fortunately the driver came back, (likely after getting to his next snow removal job and finding no blower) and his insurance covered the damages.
Hint if you hit something left in the road especially sometimes valuable take possession of the item.
I doubt there’s a lot of value in a snowblower that’s been smashed by a truck.
That snowblower was destroyed, plastic parts everywhere and I remember the fins on the cylinder were ground down from being drug along the pavement.
Our rules here in Australia might be strict, but that doesn’t stop a lot of people ignoring them – probably at least once a week I have to avoid a ladder that has fallen off a tradie’s ute onto the middle of a freeway.
But my big pet peeve with unsecured loads is tipper trucks. They are required to cover their loads, and all modern tip trucks have retractable tarpaulin covers, with a lot of them having hydraulic or electric motors to allow the cover to be opened or closed without leaving the driver’s seat. But most drivers seem to be too lazy to close the cover once they have tipped their load and are heading back empty for another. It might be technically ‘legal’ since their is no load to cover, but there will always be a bit of dirt, small rocks etc left in the tipper body after emptying a load, and with the cover open the airflow over the truck will often swirl into the tipper body and blow dirt and grit over the sides and out the back, resulting an most of the stone chips in the windscreen and paintwork of my work van.
Forget that get into the used ladder business. You know the old saying if life gives you lemons make lemonade then buy some Vodka and get drunk.
A lack of rules isn’t the problem. The problem is people with no common sense, people who don’t care, and people who are just lazy. All the rules in the world won’t stop these people from infecting mayhem like the Allstate guy.
Besides that, what is to stop these rule makers from writing rules about rusty jeeps?
On the bright side they’re trucks doing truck things.