We were scrolling Facebook this morning and came across some crazy footage published by Dash Cam Owners Australia, showing a truck descending Mount Victoria in New South Wales as its brakes fail.
The carnage we were expecting to see was actually offset by some brave and clever drivers who realised what was going on and moved out of the truck’s way. But, as always, there was one that was totally oblivious to what was going on behind them.
A caravan being towed by a Toyota LandCruiser 200 Series stayed within its lane. Even with the truck bearing down on it with its horn blaring and then squeezing between it and the rock face next to it, it failed to shift out of the way.
The footage shows that at times oncoming vehicles prevented the caravan driver from moving out of the way, but for a great deal of the video it appears that it could have avoided trouble.
Other drivers either overtook the slower truck ahead or moved into oncoming traffic to get out of the way.
The brave truck driver manages to bring the truck to a halt on an emergency safety ramp, designed to arrest out of control trucks that land themselves in this very situation.
The truck’s brakes were so cooked that it couldn’t even hold itself on the safety ramp, coming to a stop on a flat stretch of ground adjacent to the safety ramp.
Trucks will typically descend Mount Victoria in a low gear at no more than 40km/h and take advantage of engine braking to avoid overheating brakes, but in this instance it appears ahead of the truck another truck was also descending slowly as other vehicles overtake and get in front of the out of control truck.
Viewers in the comments section were complimentary of the driver’s efforts.
“F me. Well done for pulling her up safely,” one woman wrote.
“Can only imagine how stressful this was for the driver. Good thinking to get on the horn, props to the cars for realising what was happening and getting out of the way.”
“Perfect timing when the truck ramp bay appeared … very close call for caravan people,” another said.
