Around 1960, I was running for Maritime Ontario. At that time the weight laws in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick were pretty well on, just the gross vehicle weight. Nova Scotia, on the other hand was on the axle weight system.
I had to sit over the weekend in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Monday morning at 07:00, was my loading time at the fish plant in Lunenburg. I got the load on OK, and took off. There was a construction company down the road about 20mi. I pulled in and got them to check my weight. I was under on my gross by a few hundred pounds. Unfortunately I was to heavy on my trailer tandems, for this province. There was a restaurant down the line, a couple miles before the scales. I was due for some lunch anyway, so I motored on.
I got to the restaurant, and parked out front on the lot. There were no sliders, on both the tractor or the trailer. Any weight adjustment would have to be done manually, getting inside the trailer and moving freight by hand, from the middle of the load to the nose of the trailer. The cases of fish were about 50lbs. each. I had to drag 6 cases to the nose of the trailer on my stomach with only about 20" to 24" clearance, between the load and the roof of the trailer. The reefer unit was blowing 0 dg. F. and it was very dark.
| Well, I opened the right rear trailer door, and with some difficulty climbed up the door hinges to the top of the load, then crawled forward to move the freight. I was crawling and pushing the last case forward, when all of a sudden, I heard a bang, and everything went black. The reefer was still blowing freezing air on me and it was damned cold. I crawled back to the door, and it was locked. ( It can only be released from the outside.) Can you blame me, for starting to panic somewhat? |
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The trailer was extra insulated with cork, about 8" of it. It was used mostly for loads of ice cream, that made it practically sound proof as well. I spent about 20 minutes kicking at the door with no response. Finally, someone was walking past the rear doors, and heard my banging. He opened the door and I dropped down about 9 feet to the ground. I was almost ready to kill the first one I met. Fortunately I was so cold I could hardly move. I thought later, that I could of hammered my saviour. After I recuperated,( 3 hot coffees ) A guy in the booth apologized, and said he had seen the door open with no one around. He thought he was doing a driver a favour, and closed the door. He then checked in the restaurant, for the driver, but no one had seen me yet, so he sat down and ate lunch.
Eventually, I got out of there and headed for the scales. Wouldn't you know it ? a local logging truck, ( real clunker ) broke down, right on the scale. They couldn't get him moved, and they waved me on.
--------------- William (Diesel Gypsy) Weatherstone RETURN TO STORY MENU
