Offroad-Express

A 29-year-old woman has been killed in a freak accident on a Geraldton beach today.

Police say the mother-of-three was sitting in a car which was reversing in an attempt to pull another car out of sand at Drummond Cove, about 12km north of Geraldton, just after noon.

According to officers, the tow ball on the bogged car dislodged and was flung backwards through a window of the rear car, hitting the woman in the throat.

People at the scene drove her to the outskirts of Geraldton and met an ambulance at a road house.

The woman died soon afterwards in Geraldton Hospital.
Police are still at the scene.


http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/br ... ng-mishap/

Ouch, unfortunately this sort of incident (it ain't no accident) happens a few times a year.
I had a guy who was stuck on one of the Woodhill patrols we do, insist I recover him using his tow ball.
Naturally I refused explaining why.
He still didn't get it kept spouting if it can tow a trailer it must be strong enough to pull him out of the bog.
Left him there for about an hour.
Came back and asked again.
He then allowed me to remove the ball and use a shackle thru the hole.

kbushnz wrote: (it ain't no accident).

i understand where your coming from, but thats a bit harsh to say considering some one has just lost there mum.i sure they werent fully aware of the consequences, most people that arnt "car people" arnt

my thoughts to the family and all involved

It may have come across harsh, hard to get feeling into a texted based discussion. Wasn't meant to be.
My first thoughts were "That poor family"

Perhaps the suppliers of snatch straps and tow ropes should produce a leaflet with appropriate instructions.

I get really frustrated when people die thru no fault of their own. And everyone says it was an accident.

All snatch straps sold should have a big cigarette packet style warning saying "WARNING - Must only be used with rated hardware on rated attachment points - DO NOT attach to a towball."

thats sad to hear but the driver should have made sure everyone was well clear while car was being recovered but this does serve as a reminder that we all need to take care out there an that safety needs to paramount miles from civilisation

Its natural selection....the dumb ones getting killed off.

Steady on you fellas, no one knows the full situation and finer details of what happened so let's not go jumping to conclusions with statements about other peoples level(s) of knowledge/intelligence.

Instead; let us just take a moment to learn from this horrible accident and politely educate other people in the "correct" manner in which a "bogged" vehicle is recovered.

tallsam66 wrote:Its natural selection....the dumb ones getting killed off.

problem is they breed faster than intelligent people as intelligent people think raise 2 kids well rather than 6 kids badly

tallsam66 wrote:Its natural selection....the dumb ones getting killed off.

stupid thing to say. I'm not embarressed to admit that before I got into 4wheeling I would of never thought towing from a tow ball was a bad idea, not everyone who drives a car or a 4wd are into it as a hobbie so they don't learn. I can almost gaurentee if my mother was stuck or towing someone out she wouldn't think twice about hooking up to the towball and I bet most of the new zealand public would be the same.

tallsam66 wrote:Its natural selection....the dumb ones getting killed off.

Try reading the article before offering your opinion eh?

The lady killed was a passenger in a vehicle attempting to recover another bogged vehicle.. would your missus (assuming you have one, doubtful with an attitude like that) know all the do's and don'ts of recovering stuck 4x4s unless you told her? I doubt 99% of the public know that the snatch strap you buy at your local Supercheap can be deadly when used on non-rated attachment points like tow balls.

mr landrover wrote:thats sad to hear but the driver should have made sure everyone was well clear while car was being recovered but this does serve as a reminder that we all need to take care out there an that safety needs to paramount miles from civilisation

Everyone was well clear? She was in the vehicle, not outside of it.

This issue can be confused even more if you like. There is absolutly no problem with snatch towing on a tow ball AS LONG AS YOU HOOK IT UP CORRECTLY. If you run your strop under the draw bar and then over the top and onto your towball, you can quite safely use it to tow with.
Don't get me worng here, this option is still not as good as rated hooks etc, but in a pinch it can be done and works fine. If you remove the towball and put a rated shackle in the hole, you are still in danger of yanking the tounge out of the draw bar (assuming you even know how well the draw bar is attached) as the towing tounge is usually attached in a single shear fashion.
It is all horses for courses and if you are unsure about how things are attached you obviously eer on the side of caution.

when i first started out 4wdin i was none the wizer about towballs. utill i watched someone get towed out of one big ymac hole the towball disappear into the bush, then they then attached to the spreader bar between the alloy up rites. yes it went of a fly bush wards too.

i left that trip there as i worked out the problem.

"lack of knowledge can kill" joined a club the followin weekend

rokhound wrote:This issue can be confused even more if you like. There is absolutly no problem with snatch towing on a tow ball AS LONG AS YOU HOOK IT UP CORRECTLY. If you run your strop under the draw bar and then over the top and onto your towball, you can quite safely use it to tow with.

This, if you have no other option you can but I always carry a slightly smaller shackle so I can pull the ball off if needed.

rangimotors wrote:

tallsam66 wrote:Its natural selection....the dumb ones getting killed off.

stupid thing to say. I'm not embarressed to admit that before I got into 4wheeling I would of never thought towing from a tow ball was a bad idea, not everyone who drives a car or a 4wd are into it as a hobbie so they don't learn. I can almost gaurentee if my mother was stuck or towing someone out she wouldn't think twice about hooking up to the towball and I bet most of the new zealand public would be the same.

i was in the same boat of not knowing before i was into 4x4s.

good idea for makers of snatch straps to have a little DO NOT logo on their straps

Loss of life from lack of knowledge is always tragic, and this may well have put off all witnessed this from 4wding. Remember you don't know what you don't know. Alot of people do not know the different loads involved in snatching compared to towing and unless they have had some training in off road recovery will be non the wiser.
This also impacts the emergency services that respond as well as family and friends of the deceased women.
I see this as a tragic incident caused through lack of knowledge not stupidity.
Feel for all involved.
MIke

A lack of knowledge causing an incident is an accident, knowing it's wrong and doing it anyway, that's just plain stoopid!

There's no need to lump people who know no better in with the dummies, we have more than enough dummies already...

SP450andLE wrote:

mr landrover wrote:thats sad to hear but the driver should have made sure everyone was well clear while car was being recovered but this does serve as a reminder that we all need to take care out there an that safety needs to paramount miles from civilisation

Everyone was well clear? She was in the vehicle, not outside of it.

sitting in the car dont make you out the way when a snatch strap breaks under load ive seen them go through the back window and out the front

crap. i done this before but only light pulls..never know they can do this.
they looks solid...

madetdb8 wrote:crap. i done this before but only light pulls..never know they can do this.
they looks solid...

Are you serious or just looking for someone to bite on your hook?

With your account name "Made to debate" I suspect you are fishing for feedback.

ActyonMan wrote:

madetdb8 wrote:crap. i done this before but only light pulls..never know they can do this.
they looks solid...

Are you serious or just looking for someone to bite on your hook?

With your account name "Made to debate" I suspect you are fishing for feedback.

nah I dont think thats what he's meaning mate, I had to read it a few times to get what he means

I have had my Singsong for nearly 6 years now, and until these guys where I live started training me, I also would've used the tow-ball. Still do, but as a TOW-BALL not a snatch point.

If I HAVE to use the tow-ball, I put the tow strop on UNDER the tongue, cross it over BEHIND the ball and then to the towed vehicle. Prefer to yank the Hayman-Reece and push the pin through the strop loop.

Poor family, Sincere sympathies....

Moriarty wrote:
If I HAVE to use the tow-ball, I put the tow strop on UNDER the tongue, cross it over BEHIND the ball and then to the towed vehicle. Prefer to yank the Hayman-Reece and push the pin through the strop loop.

100% correct Bob. You most definitly can snatch off the towbar, but you must be sure that that the unit is correctly fitted to the vehicle and that you run the strop under or over the actual bar before hooking it over the towball.
If however this must be explained in detail, then perhaps you should just listen to the "never use the ball" crowd.

your towbar load is rated to how much vs the load involved in recovering a vehicle?

mr landrover wrote:your towbar load is rated to how much vs the load involved in recovering a vehicle?

towball ratings vary, most are usually around 2000kg

Sadam_Husain wrote:

mr landrover wrote:your towbar load is rated to how much vs the load involved in recovering a vehicle?

towball ratings vary, most are usually around 2000kg

an the average load for recovering a vehicle is what 4 ton ?

would you go out to the wops with a winch with 2ton pulling power?

My tow ball stays where it is.
Rear towing hook is a permanent Beaver 10mm chain hook (3200kg) pinned through a flat plate welded under the existing safety chain lip and box section on the 80 series factory tow bar.
Cracker solution.

http://www.beaver.com.au/?stm_a=77|&stm ... =3153&tpi=

AS a qualified rigger, I would have to suggest that your tow ball is probably on a par with the hook that is rated also for a static load not a snatch type recovery. the single pin that mounts your hook to your 10mm flat steel is far weaker than 2x high tensile 14mm bolts as supplied with your $30 "tow hook" from any reputable 4wd parts store..

Would be interesting to know what the shear strength is of the 50mm one piece tow balls ? Are they High grade steel?
There is an Aussie Std for 50mm tow balls AS4177.2-2004.. Cant find a copy on the net without paying for it...