NOTE: This year 459 lives were lost, 21,775 were injured and 40,320 vehicles, trailers and other items were either destroyed or damaged.

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       5.  Free Lance-Star, The (Fredericksburg, VA) - January 9, 2007

I-95 accident injures two VDOT employees Loose trailer carrying cinder blocks causes mishap NO RUSH IN THIS RUSH HOUR    
     A trailer carrying cinder blocks came unhitched from a dump truck yesterday on Interstate 95 northbound near Courthouse Road in Stafford County, injuring two people and snarling traffic. Loose trailer causes morning wreck on northbound Interstate 95; traffic delays of four miles "It broke loose and hit everything in its path," said Tina Bundy, Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman.One of the vehicles damaged in the incident was a VDOT truck. Two VDOT...


       6.  Florida Times-Union, The (Jacksonville, FL) - January 18, 2007

St. Simons Island woman dies in collision on bridge Her vehicle hit a trailer that had broken loose from a pickup truck.   
     BRUNSWICK - A St. Simons Island woman died Wednesday when she was thrown from her vehicle as it overturned on the island's causeway after striking a loose trailer. The accident happened about 9 a.m. as Karen Simpson, 48, was driving her 2001 Chevrolet S-10 Blazer down the western slope of the Back River Bridge of the F.J. Torras Causeway, Glynn County police Sgt. Kevin Wilborn said.A homemade trailer broke loose from a 2001 Nissan Frontier pickup truck traveling east,...


       7.     Wichita Eagle, The (KS) - December 15, 2007

RUNAWAY TRAILERS REPEATEDLY KILL   
     RICHLAND TOWNSHIP, Pa. -Spencer Morrison was a stickler for safety. The middle-school teacher had precious cargo to protect - his 4-year-old triplets, Ethan, Garret and Alaina. Only the best minivan and top-of-the-line car seats would do.None of that mattered when a trailer - a 3-ton wood-chipper on wheels - broke loose from a truck and careened into oncoming traffic on April 13, 2006.It smashed into the minivan and "just blew the vehicle apart," the local...


       8.  McClatchy-Tribune Regional News (USA) - December 25, 2007

Glen Allen man seeks federal trailer rules: Safety quest continues up ladder four years after collision with dark trailer   
     Dec. 25 Sometimes Ron Melancon thinks about giving up his four-year fight for safer trailers on the road.Melancon, a 42-year-old manager at Macy's in Regency Square mall in Henrico County, successfully lobbied the General Assembly in 2004 to require trailers of less than 3,000 pounds to have two or more reflectors or 100 or more square inches of solid reflective material in the rear.He says the trailers are unsafe because without reflectors, drivers can't see...


       9.  Sun, The (Baltimore, MD) - October 31, 2007

WE WANT YOUR OPINIONS,  SPEAK OUT!   
     ISSUE: The driver of a Lincoln Navigator whose trailer came loose on the Bay Bridge in May was "solely at fault" for the deadly multivehicle crash that resulted, according to a police investigation, but prosecutors have decided that they have no grounds for charging him with any traffic offenses.Three Eastern Shore men died in the seven-vehicle collision May 10, which closed the westbound span of the bridge well into the night and backed up traffic for miles. A...


       10.    Garden City Telegram, The (KS) - July 5, 2007

By TIM UNRUH   
     Staff Writer WRIGHT - A Spearville woman was killed Thursday when the tire from a trailer came loose and crashed through her windshield. Sharolyn Schmidt, 47, died about two hours later at Western Plains Regional Hospital, Dodge City.Kansas Highway Patrol said Schmidt was eastbound on U.S. 50 highway near Wright, which is about 10 miles northeast of Dodge City.A 1989 Ford Truck pulling a homemade trailer full of burial vaults, was westbound on U.S. 50. At 5:32 p.m., two


       11.  Journal Inquirer (Manchester, CT) - May 21, 2007

Loose trailer causes driver to strike rock ledge   
     WILLINGTON -- A Framingham, Mass. man struck a large rock ledge with a truck after the trailer he was hauling became loose and caused him to lose control of the vehicle he was driving Friday night on Interstate 84, state police said. The man, Raimundo F. DeSouza, of Framingham, Mass., was travelling west on Interstate 84 when the trailer disengaged from the truck, state police said.Both the truck and trailer skidded off the shoulder and struck a large rock ledge causing damage to...


       12.  Taunton Daily Gazette (MA) - October 11, 2007

Trailer smashes fence   
     On Wednesday afternoon, a heavy-duty landscaping trailer broke loose from a dump truck and crashed into a wooden fence on Berkley Street.The trailer belonged to M&M Landscaping of Berkley.According to police, the four-wheel trailer unclasped from the pintle-style hitch and snapped the links of a safety chain before crossing into oncoming traffic and smashing into a cedar fence."Luckily, nobody was hurt," said Taunton police Sergeant Joseph...


       13.   Star Democrat, The (Easton, MD) - October 25, 2007

Improperly fastened trailer cause of May bridge crash that killed 3 Shore residents   
     BALTIMORE An improperly fastened trailer is the sole cause of the seven-vehicle crash on William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bridge that claimed three lives May 10, and police say the man responsible will not be charged.A report released Oct. 24 by the Maryland Transportation Authority (MdTA) Police names all of those involved in the collision and places the blame for the crash on one driver, Stephen Adam Burt, 45, of Rockville, whose 2000 Lincoln Navigator was towing an empty homemade...


       14.   Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO) - June 30, 2007

Woman killed in crash   
     A Calhan woman died Friday afternoon when a cement-pumper trailer came off an approaching truck on U.S. Highway 24 and sheared off the left side of her car. The 54-year-old woman, whose name was not released, was driving a Chevrolet sedan east and had just passed Judge Orr Road shortly after noon when the 5,000-pound trailer came loose, authorities said.She died before rescuers arrived, said Colorado State Patrol Master Sgt. Tony Rasnake.Rasnake said investigators do not know.


       15.   Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL) - May 13, 2007

POLICE BRIEFS   
     Loose trailer hits car on I-75; four injured NORTH MANATEE -- A 72-year-old Cape Coral man was critically injured Saturday when a trailer detached from a truck, crossed the grass median on Interstate 75 and struck the SUV in which he was riding.Tampa resident John R. Enos, 60, was driving south on the highway about 7:43 a.m. when the trailer he was towing separated from his pickup truck and crossed the highway near the I-275 exit, the Florida Highway Patrol said.Authorities said...


       16.   Brunswick News, The (GA) - June 28, 2007

Wreck blamed on bad hitch   
     Jun. 28--Vehicles pulling improperly maintained or hitched trailers is enough to make Matt Doering see red.But the chief of the Glynn County Police Department has a strategy for dealing with violators -- slap them with a citation. "Last Friday, I pulled over a driver myself and wrote him a ticket because he had no rear lights at all on the trailer he was pulling, and you could tell it had been that way for a while," Doering said."He did have...


       17.    Tampa Tribune, The (FL) - June 5, 2007

LAW & ORDER,  HILLSBOROUGH   
     Riverview Driver Killed In Boat Trailer Accident TAMPA - A 24-year-old Riverview man died Sunday evening after the boat trailer he was towing went out of control, the Florida Highway Patrol said. Ryan F. McLaughlin was driving westbound on Interstate 4, west of the Orient Road exit, about 6:30 p.m., when the crash occurred, troopers said.McLaughlin's 2005 Nissan Titan pickup was in the right center lane, towing the trailer and boat, when the trailer started to sway...


       18.   Deseret News, The (Salt Lake City, UT) - November 29, 2007

Gunnison man killed when bale hits van   
     NEPHI -- A Gunnison man was killed Tuesday when a hay bale fell off a trailer and hit his vehicle.Utah Highway Patrol trooper Cameron Roden said Vern L. Hatch, 71, was killed in the accident, which occurred on state Route 28 about four miles south of Nephi.Roden said that a pickup headed northbound on S.R. 28 was pulling a fifth-wheel trailer that had four large bales of hay on it, each bale weighing about 850 pounds. The single strap that was securing the bales to the trailer came...


       19.   Republican-American (Waterbury, CT) - March 11, 2007

New Hampshire man charged   
     SOUTHBURY - A New Hampshire man was arrested by state police Friday after a vehicle on a car trailer became loose and was damaged.Police charged Robert A. Galletly, 53, of 430 Notre Dame Avenue, Manchester, with having an unsecured load and failure to carry a license after the 5:05 p.m. accident on I-84 eastbound, by the South Street bridge, in Middlebury.According to the police report, Galletly, driving a 2005 Ford F350 truck, stopped in heavy traffic, causing a 2007 Chrysler...


       20.   Spectrum, The (St. George, UT) - October 31, 2007

Runaway trailer injures motorcyclist   
     tdemasters@ thespectrum.com ST. GEORGE - A motorcyclist was critically injured Tuesday evening after a runaway trailer crashed into his bike.The accident was the result of a trailer popping loose from a truck that was towing it near the intersection of River Road and Tamarisk at about 5 p.m. Tuesday.St. George Police Sgt. Scott Lemmon said the truck pulling the trailer was traveling south on River Road when the trailer disengaged."The trailer starts coming...


       21.   Record, The (Troy, NY)  June 5, 2007 

Errant trailer driving school vehicle
Author: Shawn Charniga; The Record
 
Errant trailer strikes driving student
TROY -A box trailer being towed by a Troy man came loose from its hitch just before noon Saturday and rolled into oncoming traffic, colliding with a car operated by a 16-year-old student driver, police said.
According to a police accident report, the Troy teen was headed west on Northern Drive near Brickyard Road in a 2001 Ford registered to Bells Auto Driving School Inc. of Clifton Park when she crossed paths with the trailer, which is owned by a 51-year-old Averill Park man and was being towed by a 2006 GMC driven by a 41-year-old Troy man.
The GMC's driver told police he heard a 'bang' and saw the trailer begin to sway back and forth before coming loose and wandering into the oncoming lane, where it was T-boned by the driving school's Ford, reports show. Both drivers said they were traveling at 30 MPH or less, police said.
Police investigating the accident found the locking mechanism that attached the trailer to the GMC was intact, but tow safety chains bent and fell off the GMC. No charges or tickets resulted from the incident, and no injuries were noted by police.
Copyright (c) 2007, The Record, All Rights Reserved
Record Number: 2007060500028000


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