Things that make you go What the F**k?

[snoopdog]

Was Morecambe bay 15 years ago?? Jeez seems about 5.  Another in a long line of tragedies that the establishment doesn't give a shit about.

Particularly so when it is foreign nationals as its victims. Watch how quickly this tragedy fades from the news.

It's a humanitarian issue and then you hear of the number of drownings which occur regularly as people try to flee war torn and poverty stricken areas that don't even register as news.

Fleeing the wars in Syria and Yemen that the British govt
makes billions from selling weapons of total destruction to that create millions of asylum seekers.

They were Chinese.

[give her dixie]

Firstly I want to acknowledge that 39 men and women died in tragic circumstances. what a cruel death they suffered.

As a lorry driver who hauls temperature controlled goods on fridges between Ireland and the UK, and drops off
and collects refrigerated trailers at ports between Ireland and the UK I have a bit of knowledge of the way things work.

To collect a trailer at the port you must produce a reference number supplied from your company and show ID.
Your details are entered into the computer and you are given an exit pass. You go collect the trailer, and do your checks.
Paperwork is usually in an external compartment and you retrieve that. You check on the temperature of the fridge (if it is
a chilled load you are collecting), and if the trailer isn't sealed, you open the doors and check inside if the load is stable. If the doors are sealed, you do not break the seal and open the doors, especially if it is a temperature controlled load. When you have done these checks, you hook up and go. At security on way out, they check your pass. They check the trailer number and reference  against their records, and if correct, they let you go. (There are usually camera recording you and your movements when enter and exit at the security checks). You then either go on to deliver the load, or bring it back to the yard.

Looking at what has happened in Essex I can only go this much. 

The driver left Ireland solo (without a trailer) and arrived in Holyhead on Sunday. He then travelled down to Essex and on Tuesday night/ Wednesday morning he went into the docks and collected a trailer. He would have to have shown his ID and produced a reference number. Given that the ship had docked shortly before he would have been aware what time the trailer was ready for collection. He then hooked up and would then have had to show his exit pass on the way out that corresponded with the trailer.

Where  the load was for, we don't know. What we do know is that he only drove a couple of miles into an Industrial Estate,  stopped and got out of the truck and then opened the doors. There was a load in the trailer, of which we don't know, and the bodies of 39 men and women, lifeless. A call was made by someone to the ambulance service, and it was they that they called called the police. A few hours later the driver was arrested on suspicion of murder, and has been held since, with the police been given another 48 hours to question him.

The police will go through tracking devices on the truck and trailer, ANPR cameras will track all the trucks movements on the
roads in the UK to determine when and where it went, and shipping records will show the trailer movements. Authorities on the Belgium side will be able to identify the truck who delivered the trailer into the docks for shipping, and the driver. Again, their movements will be easy to track. The drivers phone / phones will be dissected. Temperature details of the trailer will be easily available. Paperwork will be investigated. CCTV from routes along the way will be poured over. Any evidence gathered from searches of both his and his parents homes, along with another house  will be thoroughly examined. 

My best guess is this. He went in and picked up the trailer and noticed something was wrong with the fridge temperature wise.
either the fridge was switched off or had run out of diesel, or the temperature was set too low. He pulled out and maybe made a phone call to someone, and then pulled into a quiet spot to check on the trailer. From the images I have seen it appears he stopped in a hurry. He's got out to check on the load and discovered the worst. If the load was sealed, why did he break the seal. And if the load wasn't sealed, then why did he not open the doors in the docks when he collected the trailer?

Fridges run at temperatures from -30 to +30 depending on the load. Lets say the fridge was set for +15, then that's a supply of fresh air at that temperature as long as the fridge is running. On the ferry, if the fridge is loaded on an open deck the fridge is powered by it's own engine, or by an electric plug in the bottom decks. Either way, fresh air is going through the trailer at a certain temperature. If the fridge is stopped, then it is a sealed box with no fresh air getting in.

As things stand, it's not looking good for the driver who has been named and has had his photos plastered everywhere, something which is wrong. And why has nobody in the media identified who owned the lorry?

While debate and questions will go on, 39 men and women died a horrible death

People took money of them and  put them in a trailer and shipped them to the UK.

People in the UK knew the trailer was arriving and arranged transport.

Let's hope as many people involved at any level in this go to jail for a very long time.

[Hereiam]

It wouldn't be normal practice for a tractor unit to head off from Ireland to England without a load on behind... would it, surly to make these trips economically viable the unit needs to always be pulling a trailer loaded with something.

[Denn Forever]

The driver raised the alarm.

[nrico2006]

How do they know the victims were Chinese?

[give her dixie]

It wouldn't be normal practice for a tractor unit to head off from Ireland to England without a load on behind... would it, surly to make these trips economically viable the unit needs to always be pulling a trailer loaded with something.

It is extremely rare that a lorry would travel out on a boat and drive that distance to wait a couple of days to collect a trailer.  The rates for haulage are bad enough and it makes no sense doing it

[give her dixie]

How do they know the victims were Chinese?

Early identification by authorities have said so

[RedHand88]

How do they know the victims were Chinese?

I thought this myself. What's to say they aren't French?

[RedHand88]

There was a taximan on the news saying he has picked up ones before with no English and they hand him a phone with someone on the line saying "take this person to X".

I wouldn't be telling people that story big lad, much less national TV.

[J70]

Would at least some of them not have some form of ID on their bodies? Cash. Mementos/food/other items from home?

[J70]

There was a taximan on the news saying he has picked up ones before with no English and they hand him a phone with someone on the line saying "take this person to X".

I wouldn't be telling people that story big lad, much less national TV.

In a place like London it would hardly be too out of the ordinary for a taxi driver to pick up someone who might need assistance with language.

[Tony Baloney]

Jack Straw was on the radio yesterday and he said the Chinese found suffocated in the early 2000s had labels removed from clothing, all ID and belongings removed so there were no identifying features. A detective noticed different coloured stitching on a dead man's belt and when they looked further there was ID sewn into the belt. There were also 2 survivors but not sure they offered too much for fear of reprisals back home.

[LeoMc]

The driver raised the alarm.

He signed for and was on CCTV collecting the trailer. He didnt have much choice.

[brokencrossbar1]

News said earlier that the nationality of the deceased is still not confirmed.  I would say that possibly they have Far Eastern physical appearance and there was assumptions made

[Square Ball]

Two further arrests. Think we need a thread on this