Amazon rescuers find ravine crash couple in MB Unimog

Victorian

Approved Vendor : Total Composites
Can't open those links...

Therefore no idea what the story behind that is....

But I know that truck quiet well, I did a lot of work on it while at Unicat. A very very nice rig!

Unimog was a used one and box was new and very well thought out.
 

haven

Expedition Leader
The link to the photo album is
http://web.me.com/bodoscott/Tread_the_World/Album/Pages/Amazon_Rescue.html

Here's a sample

Unimogaccidentamazon.jpg


It appears that the bridge broke while the vehicle was still over the bank of the river. So the truck toppled over into the vegetation, and slid downhill. That's much better than falling down 10 feet.

The extraction of the vehicle was accomplished by a ferry operator who was identified by the local authorities. The vehicle was successfully extracted, and transported to Manaus, a distance of about 300 kms (185 miles). It's at the Mercedes Benz workshop in Manaus. Details here
http://web.me.com/bodoscott/Tread_the_World/Blog/Entries/2011/10/6_NEW.htm

Let's hope that it will be possible to make repairs without shipping back to Europe.
 

haven

Expedition Leader
http://web.me.com/bodoscott/Tread_the_World/Blog/Entries/2011/10/6_NEW.htm

This blog entry by Lesley Norris contains the news that the crashed truck was broken into and stripped of everything of value as it lay in the riverbed. The local people look on an accident like this in the same way seaside villages used to view a shipwreck -- an unexpected bounty that must be harvested.

When the accident occurred, Norris and Bruce Scott were driving the 760 kms from Porto Velho to Manaus on BR-319, the notorious rainforest road in Rondonia. The blog report indicates that the couple traveled the first half of the road (300 km) on the first day, and they hoped to cover the second half on the day of the accident.
 

Iain_U1250

Explorer
My wife and I looked at the photos last night - I said that at first glance looking at the photos of the bridge I would have driven across it - she said she would not have. I wonder what discussions the two of them had prior to driving over the bridge.
 

haven

Expedition Leader
The blog post referenced above indicates that the bridge appeared to be in good repair, no planks missing or out of place. So the couple drove onto the bridge without a walking inspection first.

It's possible that a closer inspection would have raised an alarm. I think the problem was below the bridge surface and invisible. I've seen several bridges in the Pantanal wetlands of Brasil that looked like they were about to collapse, yet American-style dump trucks loaded with rocks drove over them every day.

I'm wondering about insurance coverage for this accident. Should they sue the Brazilian highway authority? The accident happened on a major road.
 

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