Load Transfer Needed After Frightening Accident on Loudoun County Parkway
Road Runner Wrecker Service performed a load transfer and recovery on the Loudoun County Parkway on June 3, 2021. A fully loaded semi truck was carrying 43,000 lb of recycled copper parts when the driver took a curve slightly too fast. Within seconds the tractor trailer was off the road, lying on its side in an embankment.
The heavy towing team was on site within 12 minutes of receiving a call from the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office. The accident occurred at 2:00 PM and the clock was ticking before the start of rush hour. This meant that the recovery and load transfer team had approximately 2 hours to clear the scene.
All the copper barrels were now laying on one side of the overturned trailer. Should the crew have tried to upright the truck as it was, they risked breaking the trailer walls due to uneven weight distribution. Road Runner has a forklift on hand to make off-loading trailers as quick and seamless as possible.
Once all the copper was removed from the trailer, the recovery process could begin. Using two rotators, the heavy duty recovery team began to slowly upright the tractor trailer. The team’s decades of experience shone through as they executed the complex recovery quickly and had the accident site cleared within 1.5 hours!
Fantastic work out there team! A special thanks to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and the Virginia State Police Department for controlling traffic during the recovery process.
Details of Load Transfer Needed After Frightening Accident on Loudoun County Parkway
Road Runner Wrecker Service received a call requesting a load transfer and heavy recovery team on the Loudoun County Parkway. A load transfer and heavy recovery team was immediately dispatched to the location with a 50 ton wrecker, a 60 ton wrecker, a trailer, and a forklift.
Before the recovery could take place, the load transfer team needed to off-load 43,000 lb of copper from the overturned trailer. The copper was being transported in barrels but many of them had broken during the crash. Using a forklift, the load transfer team began removing the copper barrels from the trailer.
Once the load transfer team had removed all the copper barrels, the recovery process could begin. The heavy duty recovery team hooked the 60 ton rotator to the front of the trailer and to the cab. The 50 ton rotator was hooked up to the back of the trailer. Each of the rotators had both control lines and lift lines to ensure that the truck did not tip over during uprighting.
The load transfer and heavy duty recovery team began the uprighting process. They slowly uprighted the tractor and trailer in unison. Due to extensive damage as well as fuel and oil leaks, the truck was a total loss and could not be driven away on it’s own. When the tractor trailer was uprighted, the load transfer and heavy duty towing team began prepping the tractor trailer for transport.