In the past few days the weather in many parts of the country has been incredibly cold, leading not only to frozen fingers and toes, but also to dangerous road conditions. Four different multi-vehicle pile-ups in Ohio alone are reminding drivers to slow down and be more cautious when conditions are questionable.
The pile-up that caused the most damage involved at least 86 vehicles and resulted in the hospitalization of 20 people and the death of a 12-year-old girl. Police were called to the scene on Interstate 275 just outside of Cincinnati shortly after 11:30am to discover that multiple chain reaction crashes had occurred.
“It was just chaos, absolute chaos,” Hamilton County sheriff’s office Lt. Tory Smith told The Cincinnati Enquirer.
According to authorities the interstate was shut down for hours. The sheriff’s office said that the cause of the crash remains under investigation, but that bad weather was absolutely a factor. Visibility was very poor, snow was accumulating on the roads and there was ice everywhere.
A similar situation occurred to cause the 50-vehicle pile-up on I-75 where Highway Patrol cited “white-out conditions” as what caused the first few drivers to lose control and start the crash.
In conditions like these, it’s so very important for all drivers to be aware, but truckers have a responsibility to be extra cautious. We all know that the stopping distance on a fully loaded semi is quite a bit longer than what we’d like, even in the best of conditions. Add to that poor visibility, slippery roads, and four-wheelers zipping around as if everything’s fine and you have a recipe for tragedy. So as always, stay safe, keep your head on a swivel, and keep the shiny side up!
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Source: thetrucker
Image Source: USA Today
That’s a horrible accident.So sorry for the girl that lost her life.People just won’t lerarn.They think it’ll never happen to them.
Of course drivers wouldn’t drive in th ose conditions unless they felt an obligation to. Most of those trucks in that pic didn’t have company logos on the sides of the equiptment, which means to me they were local delivery trucks, probably trying to deliver all night to local grocers who keep Cincinnati replenished by morning for their customers, and milk trucks keeping processing plants open by delivering bulk milk to local plants, and then to keep people from freezing to death, trucks had to deliver kerosene, propane and natural gas. Some truckers are never appreciated for driving in hazardous conditions until the people don’t have these items in stores by morning or heat for houses. I feel sorry for local dedlivery trucks when icy conditions happen.
It’s true that most appear to be local, not only because of no logos, but a couple are day-cabs. The lack of weight makes it even more dangerous than a sleeper truck, but speed has a lot to do with it, I’ll bet. I’d rather be late than lose my load or my life. I’ve been made fun of because I’ve pulled off or slowed down and put my flashers on. But my heart goes out to all of them, especially the family of that little girl. Everyone’s life in that accident has been changed forever.
The sad part about humans is that this type of weather accident happens all the time year after year and as humans we never seem to learn from our mistakes. As a truck driver myself for years I have found only one solution to prevent myself from getting involved in what I know will be one of these accidents. Stay off the road! I just park it. I know for some they simply cannot do this. But ask yourself next time if driving in a bad weather condition is worth it?
I’ve been known to say “Screw you, screw the load, send someone after it if they need it bad enough for someone to die for it. I’m not!
I’ve did the local thing too. If the roads get too bad then i pull off or i brought the load back. Tell the pencil pushers to drive it.
See drivers are still being pushed by their own company and all of a driver could say so the company have no say about this one…. Say I am puting myself out of duty due to FATIGUE and refer to CSA 2010 .
Now a company that would harrasse the driver over that one would be fined if complaint would be formulated.