AIR CUSHIONS USED TO UPRIGHT RIGS

DUTCHTOWN -- New air cushions, which work much like a system of balloons, make righting an overturned tractor-trailer faster, easier and safer.

A demonstration of the new equipment was held Saturday at Carnell's Garage and Wrecker Service in Dutchtown.

Carnell's purchased the air cushions in June and is the only wrecker service in the area to use them.

The air cushions, large orange balloons, are positioned beneath the trailer and inflated.

The pressure of the air forces the trailer upright.

A few inches are needed to slide the cushions beneath the overturned trailer for the cushions to work.

Two small starter cushions and five larger cushions push the trailer upright.

The big benefit comes because the trailer doesn't have to be unloaded before being righted.

Mark Carnell, president of Carnell's, said the system will lift 150,000 pounds. A fully-loaded tractor-trailer would weigh about 80,000 pounds.

The weight limit for a hydraulic wrecker is much lower, so trailers must be unloaded before they can be righted.

Even unloaded, trailers are sometimes broken in the process.

Carnell recalled an accident last summer where the air cushions would have been valuable.

A beer truck had overturned on Interstate 55, and Carnell's wrecker service had to drag the trailer on its side from a ditch far enough to unload it.

After the beer cans were unloaded by hand, the trailer was light enough for the wrecker to right it.

Traffic was stopped for four hours, and Carnell's crew had worked at the accident scene for 11 hours.

Last week, the Carnell's workers timed an air-cushion drill from the time they arrived at the scene. They righted a trailer in 50 minutes.

On Saturday, representatives of local fire departments, wrecker services and truck lines watched as the Carnell staff righted a tractor-trailer in a pouring rain. The demonstration took about 90 minutes.

Doug Ritter, Jimmy Hanks and Vernon Huffman with the East County Fire Protection District, headquartered at Egypt Mills, watched as the truck tipped back onto its wheels.

"It's a lot safer than using strictly a wrecker," Ritter said.

The air cushions should be "insurance friendly," the firefighters speculated.

Huffman said, "Usually when you have a trailer with a load, the trailer is ripped apart."

Hanks said, "There are enough trucks on the road to make this a worthwhile piece of equipment to have around."

Carnell demonstrated the equipment last week for the Cape Girardeau and Jackson fire and police departments.

The air cushions can be used to lift almost anything, Carnell said.

"These can be used if heavy equipment falls on a person or even if a building collapses," he said.

The cushions have a low air pressure to prevent the bags from bursting, he said.

The low pressure also allows the cushions to conform to the shape of the truck or other items to be lifted.