Terrible Trailer accident... has this happened to anyone?

oh my god that is absolutly horrible, my heart goes out to the loaner and the owner, the poor horse.
 
Oddly enough, that has happened to me.

Fortunately I had a much better outcome. The back door of my trailer popped open, and the horse, Rosie, jumped out. It was a catalogue of woes, my keys and wallet had been stolen while I was out on a ride, and in the 5 or 6 hours it took to try to get the mess sorted, a well-meaning friend hitched my trailer to their truck and drove Rosie home. They closed the rear door, but I've always double-roped it too, thinking that the closure didn't look all that secure to me. The back door swung open and Rosie hopped out.

A couple of things that saved her were luck and design. She's not tied in the trailer, so she never got hauled along the road and broke her neck. Also, by luck, my friend had chosen the very quiet route home and the one truck that came along slowed and stopped (and caught the horse). The other route is a 5 lane crowded highway where everything is travelling at over 60.

I'm very concerned about trailer fastenings. When I first started trailering joePony in other people's trailers, I would always look at the closures with suspicion, but the owners would say, obviously, they're fine, it never comes undone ... Then I got mine, and just thought, you know, I am not convinced. Hence the double roping. It's a habit.

Mine is a very basic trailer, though, all the mechanisms on it are very simple and easy to see. I don't know what I would do if I ever got a 'better' trailer with more complex fastenings. Panic, I think.
 
I'd like to know which trailer as that is a lot of things to have gone very wrong (trailer back come down, back bar come undone, horse become untied)

very very sad, and very very worrying if Police had heard of other cases
 
That's just awful, but how did it happen, my trailer has pins that I guess could pop up if you went over bumps, but also breech bars and he is always tied up, was the mare loose and no breech bars???? What type of trailer was it?
 
Snowyboy said:
I'd like to know which trailer as that is a lot of things to have gone very wrong (trailer back come down, back bar come undone, horse become untied)

very very sad, and very very worrying if Police had heard of other cases
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Echo this, it's happened to me with an Ifor williams trailers not sure of model, but both bars fell and the horse cut all his side and hip open on the flapping partion. I've never been a fan of the Ifor, and the trailer company we hired it of were not very suprised when we told them, and the pins are very easily bent. So sad.
 
Oh god how awful,stories like this turn my stomach.How horrific for all concerned.Poor pony.

I have had the ramp on my lorry not fastened properly,but luckily it didn't open just bobbed around a bit and another motorist aleted us to it very soon after setting off.I am paranoid about it now and make my OH double and triple check it.

I was thinking of getting a trailer next year,is this kind of thing that put's me off though (that and the fear of it coming detached from the pulling vehicle,does that ever happen??)

In the case of OP,Would they not have heard the ramp dragging on the ground behind them?? I would have though it would have made a right racket??
 
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Ditto above, also WHY did the driver not feel what was going on? I am VERY aware of horses moving in the back - trailer or lorry, and what speed was he doing that he didnt notice his trailer had suddenly become much lighter?
Why did they take so long to stop when they thought something was wrong?

Beggars belief.
 
snopuma said:
That's just awful, but how did it happen, my trailer has pins that I guess could pop up if you went over bumps, but also breech bars and he is always tied up, was the mare loose and no breech bars???? What type of trailer was it?
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I have to say, I don't quite understand how it happened either :eek:
 
The amount a 'g force' when a trailer is moving, with the back down could easily drag a horse backwards, and if it's not tied up then it could easily have been dragged back. I'm sure more will come out about the accident, hopefully anyway so that people can learn from such a terrible mistake.
 
In a different trailer - the sort of 2-horse, with the breach bars - I've had another mare pop the breach bars quite easily. I guess what would have happened, is they're going over rough road, the horse is moving about, the trailer is rattling ... enough that things are rattling free... they realise all is not well, but they're in roadworks, and they stop as soon as they can ? I didn't read how far they'd driven before stopping - it needn't have been very far :( I don't think tying the horse in the trailer would have helped its safety, only hindered it. The LAST place I want a horse restrained by, in an accident, is its head.
 
God how awful!! RIP mare. I have to say if the driver was using their mirrors surely they would have seen the horse come out the back too??!! I am glad with mine (bateson) you have a big window & can see exactly what the horse is doing, so if it panics, goes down or worse you can stop immediately & not relying on other triggers like feel.
 
This is one of the reasons I HATE travelling with Lou!! The fact that she is very nervous about the whole thing doesn't help, because when she gets nervous I get ridculously so! She loads fine, but my fear of travelling is so great that when she moved to her loan home this summer, it was the first time she'd been loaded in over four years!
 
wonkeywoody said:
Ditto above, also WHY did the driver not feel what was going on? I am VERY aware of horses moving in the back - trailer or lorry, and what speed was he doing that he didnt notice his trailer had suddenly become much lighter?
Why did they take so long to stop when they thought something was wrong?

Beggars belief.
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I absolutely echo this. This is all that I can think of really? How do you not notice the weight loss? Even as a passenger I would notice.

sad though, RIP horsey
 
I know this will soudn daft and you'll all think I am paranoid, but you know I worry in slow moving traffic and the like, towing a trailer, it only takes one sick so and so 2 seconds to open the back of any standard trailer......in slow traffic. say in roadworks...........

We have small padlocks fitted to our trailer ramp to stop little fingers casually having a go.

Even if our ramp pins came open the springs would hold the ramp up!
 
I felt sick reading that after having had an accident with a trailer years ago :(
R.I.P Puzzle Bride and huge condolences to the owner and loaner xxx
 
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