Truck Flips Over at County Fair
Last night’s Coshocton County Fair had a doozey of a non-fatal crackup during the Rough Truck Competition. A small dozer, a loader, and a roller had spent a couple hours earlier yesterday creating a series of wicked little jumps, bumps and tight turns creating an obstacle course for off road vehicles. Contestants, in various states of readiness, are expected to try to stick within the cones during a timed run through a surprisingly difficult little track.
It was clear from the first set of jumps that the local boys from Walhonding Recyling (no web site, and possibly not a telephone number) were going to make an aggressive run, so I kept my 50D cranking away.
The driver took off like a shot across the final set of jumps. He must have been 6 feet in the air after the first jump.
It was clear that he was going to hit the second jump pretty hard, But he seemed to recover OK.
As it turned out, momentum was working against him, and the back half of the truck was moving faster than the front.
Pickups are very nose heavy, with no weight in the back,
which makes them prone to nose dives. Once the grill hit the ground, the truck continued to pinwheel forward.
The driver was unhurt.
The pickup headed back to the recycling center—with a questionable future in motor sports.
Ironically, a paramedic was the only injury caused by the truck accident. Hopping into a Polaris UTV, and apparently not belting up for the 100 foot drive to the accident site, the volunteer fireman turned too sharply, flipping the utility vehicle on its side, resulting in a broken leg.
After the first accident, the grand stand starting thinning out, and there was only one more rollover for the night.
After a somewhat overenthusiastic power slide in a turn that was a much bigger crowd pleaser after the mysterious disappearance of a cone, a jeep rolled over.
Nobody was hurt, and the staff and firefighters, this time without UTVs, quickly righted the vehicle.
The last contestant rant at 10:30pm. Although he didn’t actually roll over, he looked like he did. By the time he crossed the finish line, half the bed was dragging on the ground, the hood was coming unlatched, and the engine was smoking.
More images:
- Coshocton Tribune article
- Another blog entry coming shortly with photos of the Amish Ambush minibus