Truck crashed into my new shop

[Terry Hatfield]

Wow Sam. That's crazy!! Glad it's getting taken care of.

[Steve Wilde]

Wow, just wow....

Back when I was in retail management, one of the stores I was based at took truck deliveries in front. A big-rig w/ liftgate would back up to the front of the store, then offload the pallets there. This particular store was in a strip mall, which had a covered sidewalk in front, with these vertical coulumns for support. Anyhow, this one time, the driver missed or whatever and backed the truck right into one of those columns. I was in the back of the store and thought we had an earthquake. The whole building shook. No idea how much or if permamanent damage was done but building managment had to come inspect it. Crazy how a vehicle moving maybe 1-2mph can still wreck a standing structure. Glad there were no injuries.

Erik

I have a story similar. My old house had a freestanding garage on the back corner of the lot, and they were building a set of townhouse next to it. They had dug out the ground next to my garage to build a retaining wall. After they poured the wall they were waiting for it to cure so they could backfill it, and it rained for days. They were worried about the foundation of my garage slumping due to the missing dirt at the base, so as soon as they could they started to backfill it. I was in the garage doing something and the whole garage started shaking, I thought it was an earthquake and looked up only to see the roof, topplate and rafters lift off the top of the cinder block wall. I ran around the outside of the house to find out that as they were backfilling it the picked my whole roof off the garage with the back of the bucket on an excavator! Scared the crap out of me, I'm really lucky it didn't fall on me!

[mike mcilroy]

Drive through woodworking. Innovative concept.
Glad that at least you're dealing with people you have confidence in.

[Sean Troy]

Now you have all the cr*p for the year out of the way at one time.

[Sam Layton]

Well, the work is underway on my shop. Yesterday the garage door people came and removed the garage door. Then, yesterday days afternoon the framers started the demo. This morning the demo continues. An engineer will be here today to advised on how to fix the truss.

Regarding insurance: I have had a lot of work done throughout the years. Some were insured, and some were not. I have never had a problem. With this incident, I have learned a very valuable lesson, and it did not cost me anything. I was very lucky that the the trucking company used had good insurance. The agent agreed to the contractors bid right away, and work is underway. In the future, if anyone works for me they must have insurance.

Erik and Steve, what stories. I can not imagine being in the shop when this happened. Steve, did they repair your garage to your satisfaction?

[Pat Barry]

Glad to hear that you are going to get it fixed as good as new. What I thought I would see when I first opened the thread was a huge hole in your building where some truck had driven right through. Given that scenario you got off without too much the worse for wear. I think you can tell the builders they did a great job on the structure though!

[Jerome Stanek]

When I worked for a crop service that would get several dump bed semis a day I have seen dump trucks that have rolled like that a couple of my friends laid them on their sides and until they are more than 45% they roll slow. I saw one start to go but the driver was quick enough to get the bed low enough to stop it.

[Mark Blatter]

About 25 years ago my mother was in the process of buying a new house. It was on a fairly steep slope with houses above and below hers. Across the street, on the uphill side of things another house had just been completed, but the owners had not yet moved in. About 800 yards up hill from both of them a large building was being built. The construction company had ordered a water truck to come up to spray water around for dust remediation. The driver parked the truck, I think it was about 2500 gallon truck, while waiting for the word to spray. I don't remember if he didn't set the brakes right or if they gave away, but the truck rolled down the hill. The hill side was covered in scrub oak and it got moving pretty fast going down that hill. It went into the house across from my mother's and would have gone out the front, but was heavy enough that went through the floor and into the basement, which stopped it. The owners of that house simply said 'No thank you' and had the water truck's insurance company buy it from them. It was eventually repaired and sold, but the damage was extensive. For years you could see the scar on the hill side and see how the truck was literally aimed right at my mother's house.

Some times Karma is your enemy, but every so often, she is your friend.

[Sam Layton]

Pat, the builders did do a great job. They put 6, 2X6 studs on each side of the massive header. The framers that framed my shop were like no other framers that I have seen. They do precision work.

Jerome, after this incident, I hear more stories about the high lift dump trucks tipping over. I don't know why anyone would use such a truck. I wish the driver could have been fast, and let it down before it hit.

Mark, what a story. I can not imagine any truck, much less a water truck going down a hill uncontrolled. If full, that water truck had 10 tons of water, plus the weight of the truck. Thank goodness for the basement. It is really lucky that no one was in the house that it crashed into.

[Jerome Stanek]

You have to use those trucks if you want to carry that much weight. For as many of them operating there isn't that many that tip.

[scott spencer]

Wow! That really sucks! Hopefully it'll all work out soon enough.