It will be interesting to read more detail about this accident. It would seem that it was a lowboy type trailer high centered, which would explain why the truck wasn’t able to clear the crossing, but none of the videos that I have seen, have shown the back of the tractor clearly enough to determine if it was a typical fifth wheel/semi trailer set or something different.
There are highway versions of the Schnabel type system, where the load is structurally part of the vehicle, and that wouldn’t be possible to “Uncouple” in under a minute.
Log trucks are another example, where they can’t be uncoupled while loaded, with the front “Bunks” attached to the “Tractor” and the logs spanning to the rear “Bunks,, with the “Reach” really just positioning the trailer axles for loading, and guiding the the log trailer while moving, the logs themselves are self supporting between the bunks, and the reach not really carrying any load.
It does appear that the tractor was uncoupled, in the Pecos accident, but the videos just don’t show as much detail as I would like to see, to better understand what happened
Doug
