Page 299 - IGC BOOK

Loss of Control and Overturning:

Loss of Control:

A driver may lose control of their vehicle for various reasons including over speeding at
corners.

• Loss of control shall occur due to mechanical failure e.g. failure of breaks, blown tyres or worn
out tyres.

• steering – modern steering system may fail in different ways, when they fail it is difficult to
control the vehicle and accidents may occur.

• Environmental factors contribute to loss of control due to poor maintenance of road, wet
condition of the road due to rain, environment can affect the visibility of the driver e.g. fog
leads to poor visibility.

Loss of controls can lead to fatal injuries, also contribute to vehicle to overturn.

Overturning:

There are two main ways in which a vehicle may turnover:

Lateral instability - a vehicle turning onto its side, as when a high-sided lorry is blown over in high
wind, or when a loaded forklift tips over whilst driving across a slope.

Longitudinal instability - a vehicle turning onto its front or back, as when a tractor's front wheels
lift due to the weight applied by an attached trailer, or when a forklift truck is
moving up or down a slope.

Overturning is caused by the centre of gravity of the vehicle moving outside of its wheelbase as
shown in the following diagrams of loaded forklifts.

With forklifts, the higher a load is carried vertically going down a slope, the more unstable the
vehicle is as the load centre is increased. It is, therefore, better for forklifts to reverse down
slopes with the load as low as possible. See the diagram later in this section.

Such instability is a major problem in the safe use of high vehicles, particularly those with
lifting mechanisms.

ENSIGN | General Workplace Issues 32