Re: Death
 

Originally Posted by darnall:
A 360 sprint gasser from the plains states was in the micro sprint stage of his career many years ago when a trailer door fell on his dad. Pretty sure it was a winch lifted ramp door on a 2 foot extra height trailer that had a cable snap or detach. Suffered from lots of internal trauma along with broken pelvis, ribs, femur etc etc.

If any of you guys have ever tried to close the ramp door on a standard trailer with a broken cable/spring assist you understand how heavy those doors really are...One thats heavy enough to require a winch to lift instead of a roller spring falls hard. And to my knowledge there really is no way to have any sort of backup system that can stop it but still let it function correctly. I have always been paranoid about opening ramp doors... I prefer to do it with someone else on the other side to unlatch and tug the handle so we can both stand arms reach away from where it could fall. I am sure people have looked at me like I'm an idiot when they see me unlatch one side then walk a 12 foot circle to the other side but trailer doors scare me worse than buckling in the car ever has.

I hate hearing about it happening again and again every couple years to circle trackers, drag racers, guys with harley trailers or anybody else.

Your method makes complete sense to me and your right it's an ongoing tragedy. The more I read about this young airman the more tragic this accident becomes.

Re: Death
 

Darnall, I may look silly like you, but that's the way I approach my trailer door also, I open and close it by myself, and like you, I walk "around" it, I prefer to close it also, myself, I've had "help", turn it loose about 2 ft before it is closed, and that sometimes can "unwind" the cables, and the next time it gets opened, it falls, thanks, but no thanks, I'll do mine myself, if I notice something doesn't feel like it did the last time, I can remember that. Good advice! Bob