A family of four is lucky to be alive after rear-ending a truck and getting stuck on the trailer. They’re even luckier considering that the truck didn’t notice and continued to drag the van along for 16 miles before emergency vehicles were able to flag the driver down to pull the truck over.
Near whiteout conditions allegedly prevented the family from seeing the truck in front of them as they drove North on I-75 just south of Roscommon, Michigan. The impact was light enough that the driver of the truck didn’t notice, but hard enough to partially crush the front of the minivan under the back of the trailer, the metal ripping and warping in such a way that it the two vehicles became connected.
The family inside the minivan dialed 911 and tried to explain the situation to the dispatcher. Unable to describe accurately where they were because of the same bad weather that contributed to the accident, the minivan and truck traveled a whopping 16 miles before authorities arrived.
The terrifying ordeal landed all four family members in the hospital for evaluation, but miraculously no serious injuries were reported.
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Source: abc
Thank God nobody was hurt.
I saw the minivan driver in an interview – he admitted to driving 35+ mph in whiteout conditions in which he couldn’t see in front of him and in the next breath blamed the truck driver for going much slower than that! Unbelievable!
He must work for the fmcsa 😉
If the truck driver would have looked in his mirrors every 5 to 8 seconds like a professional driver should, the mini van, wouldn’t have been dragged down the highway for 16 miles.
Not if he was that close and in the arearly where he could not see him right be hind the truck. Hence the reason you see the signs on a big truck saying if you can’t see me I can’t see you. I can see where this could easily havery happened. He was tailgating the big truck and going to fast for road conditions and then hello back end of big rig.
Look at the picture, mini van was caught on right side of the DOT bumper, not centered directly behind trlr, driver should have been able to see stuck vehicle in his right west coast mirror. Still, accident is not truck drivers fault, he just should have been able to recognize what was going on around him, before he got 16 miles down the road.
how do you know that’s where the van was stuck the whole time?
Ok think about what you just said. First off on a sunny day he wouldn’t be able to see that van if it’s that close. Add in the snow. When you pull a van through the snow you can’t see anything but white behind you. Factor in also it’s night time. I hate explaining things to idiots. This was in NO way the truck drivers fault. Bad part is now that driver and company will have an accident on their FMCSA score.
Any driver who would believe that he wouldn’t see a van because it’s too close must slam into a lot of docks, gates, phone poles, etc., and I hope he’s never trying to back in next to me at a truck stop.
Lights on the minivan probably got knocked out. Spray from the tandems obscured the rest.
Well, it was a “whiteout.”
Look for this family to file a multi million dollar lawsuit,it’s coming, never fails.
I refuse to believe that the driver didn’t feel it. When you slowly back into a dock, you feel the trailer hit, right? A hit hard enough to actually damage the minivan should have been felt.
Whole lot of difference, that dock don’t move or give, and in those conditions I’m sure he was whiteknuckled on the wheel trying not to hit someone.
Do you really think the truck driver would keep going if he knew someone hit him?? Would you? That van hitting him feels like a speed bump in a rig.
if you’re good, no, you don’t feel the hit. i don’t even look anymore bro.
I had a four-wheeler bounce off my trailer tires and didn’t feel it. I only saw it because he crossed from the other side of the road. This four-wheeler went up under his DOT bumper, moving just a little faster than he was. It might’ve felt like a small bump in the road, especially if he had air-bags. Also, don’t forget all the snow out there, which absorbs sound.
I can believe driver didn’t feel it. If it was white out conditions the wind probably was ticking the truck and trailer. And no surprise that the driver of the van is pointing fingers at the truck, nobody wants to take responsibility for their actions. I’m betting they have already talked to a lawyer.
I can believe driver didn’t feel it. If it was white out conditions the wind probably was rocking the truck and trailer. And no surprise that the driver of the van is pointing fingers at the truck, nobody wants to take responsibility for their actions. I’m betting they have already talked to a lawyer.
Guy is going down the road on the edge of his seat, focusing enormous mental effort on trying to pull any information he can from the sea of white sparkles so he doesn’t run up on something or run out of the road. I can totally see failing to notice the idiot fourwheeler who just stuck himself to my back bumper, and the grease that was undoubtedly on the road would have helped it slide easier, so the weight wouldn’t have been so easy to notice.
This is one thing that collision avoidance vehicle to vehicle communication stuff could really help. Everybody has to pick a speed in heavy fog or a blizzard, and the hardest thing is not going too slow or too fast. Whenever I can, I like to follow another vehicle at the absolute limit of visibility, and just barely keep their tail lights in view. If I can keep up with them, I have an early warning system.
I figured out how dicey this game is my first year out. I got passed by some fourwheeler who had no problem going fast. I started to second guess myself, and thought about speeding up. Just then, I passed the fourwheeler upside down in the median. Ah hah. Instincts, I’m going to trust you, and now it’s time to go to bed! That was 20 years ago. Knock on wood.
Remember too that a heavy truck plows through snow and a lighter load will slide through snow. I like 30000 lbs in the box for fresh snow. Then I can lead the others. Still, the concentration required is tiring. Wait for the crews to clear the road when possible!
Felt it, didn’t feel it, doesn’t matter he was rear ended not his fault period. They will sue like all the others and I really do hope it’s one of the few honest judges so he can look at those people and their attorney and say, get the hell out of my courtroom with this crap.
The truck driver should get his neck brace out and sue the driver of the four wheeler for pain and emotional distress. On a more serious note, assuming the road was not a perfectly smooth I can totally see how you could tapped on the rear and not think anything of it. Just another bump in the road.
Yea although they hit the truck any money hungry lawyer will get a case against the company just because they were dragged 16mi. They will claim emotional stress from being dragged. And if they perhaps sue if I was the driver I would sue them for the time they took from him by hitting him. And the driver would win because the driver of minivan said they hit the truck. It serves them right the driver should have drug them for 20mi. These people that drive in adverse conditions knowing full well they cant gets whatever happens to them. I saw a family wreck im still trying to figure out how the got into that tree. They had traffic slowed down caz of all the rubber necking. When they do stupid stuff they really think they be really driving. Like coming across 4 lanes cutting u off nearly getting hit by me just to exit and I look in my mirror there is no one behind me. Go figure!!!!
That’s kind of an interesting choice…do you stay in the minivan and pray or do you bail and hope to hitch a ride before you freeze? Since it’s a family of four I guess you stay and pray. If you’re driving solo, I think you bail out of the passenger side asarp.
I’ve been driving trucks since 1975, through pretty much every weather. I can’t think of a single time that I couldn’t have seen a minivan stuck under the DOT bar the way this one was. That’s what the bubble mirror is for in the first place.
He wasn’t going fast enough that the kicked-up snow would hide something that size.
Other than having his head up and locked, the driver did a good job, correcting for the initial impact and then 16 miles of of the added weight and drag on the back corner.
Meanwhile, the minivan driver should be put in jail for putting the family in that kind of danger. Under those conditions, to be blasting down the road so fast you can’t see the back of a VAN (or the 9 lights on it) until too late to stop is the action of someone who is too stupid to live. To risk your own life is your choice, but you don’t have the right to kill three other people whose only mistake was to trust you behind the wheel.
clearly he never checked his mirror or was completely incompetent…
This happened to me in rain and fog on Rt. 83 in Pa., north bound just across the Md. line 1984. Had pulled over to check my chains. Pulled out with 4 ways on. A car came up beside blowing the horn and pointing back, I seen steam so I stopped in the passenger lane. A woman from Ottawa Ca. had driven under my trailer. She had an Aries K car that got lodged under my ICC bumper . With no flat tires I was pulling her along like nothing was there. She admitted she looked up and was under my trailer, she had fallen asleep. The State Trooper could not understand why I could not feel the weight, told him it was rolling you would not feel it grossing 80,000 just going through the gears. The State Cop gave me a fine in the mail, for not using proper signals. Had a hearing. The District Justice was infuriated, she never showed up because of being from Canada, and that I was given a ticket, The DJ believed I had my 4 ways on. I could hear him hollering at the cop as I was leaving for wasting the courts time.
& Keith and sky t-s….. I have been driving 42 years if that vehicle was centered under the ICC bumper you would never see it. Just like if the cars are to close you cannot them see in your mirrors. Maybe you never seen this sign on the back of trailers…. “If you cannot see my mirrors I cannot see you”…. How long have you been driving since 1972 ????
I could not see the K- car only steam when I stopped..!!!
If the vehicle had been centered you would be right. It’s not.
You all missed one factor in this accident. It happened in white out conditions. If the van didn’t see the truck before it hit him, how could the driver see over 65 ft behind him in blinding snow. The only mistake the driver did was not finding a safe place to ride out the storm. No cargo is so important to risk your life or anybody else. On the other hand he may have saved the families life by them getting stuck under his bumper and not freezing to death in a snow bank.
I’ve been through a blizzard or ten. I’ve never seen conditions where I could see far enough ahead to drive that I couldn’t see far enough back to see a minivan stuck in my bumper. The inability of the guy who hit him to see at HIS speed has nothing to do with whether or not the driver could see.
Heres a scenerio..maybe the driver was fighting time on his electronic log! Drrr. Whatever the reason if someone hit you hard enouph to get stuck under the DOT bar will undoubtedly cause enouph of a bump to resolve in me wanting to know just what the hell that was?. I got hit from behind before by a trailblazer at a dead stop,i felt it jolt me and i was maxxed out on my weight. For whatever the reason he didnt stop to look, this is just another reason for michigan to take another look at there speed limits. Trucks 60 mph cars 70 mph. Thats another reason giving 4 wheelers the excuse to drive faster than you hence creating an unequal traveling speed. This is an accident waiting to happen! Even if i think ive had a blowout? I am not stoppin in a whiteout to check and see “period”. Theres to many unsafe factors here to make a decision based on maybe.
As for looking in your mirrors every four to six seconds. In white out conditions there is no way for you see what’s beside,behind or in font of you. It is unsafe to stop due to the white out. If the winds were up there is no way the driver would feel the mini van hit the trailer.
If it was that bad out, they shouldn’t have been driving that fast. Idiots.
1: The roads in Mi are full op potholes and bumps, thus one more little bump while you’re moving under those conditions will not register as something out of the ordinary to any truck driver, regardless of how much experience you think you have. (Mr “porkchop” you were at a “dead stop” when you claim that you felt the jolt when you were hit. Not the same thing as in this case!)
2: In a whiteout condition and especially if the side that the van got stuck under the ICC bumper was the downwind side, unless you’ve got some infrared vision or something like that, you’ll never see anything in those mirrors past your drive axles.
Too many are quick to judge and blame a fellow driver, a colleague. Too many of you feel that you’re better and smarter than everybody else, but every time something happens where you’re involved somehow, you’re the first ones to divert blame even if you yourselves are at fault.
Lawyers always look for ways to blame the other party/parties even when their client is clearly at fault because they’re motivated by money.
You are quickly throwing unfounded blame around out of your own stupid pride, thinking that you’re coming out smarter if you can show fault in someone else. But when it happens that it is you in the middle of it all, well, you will find a million and one excuses and explanations of why it’s not your fault even if it happens to be your fault.
I’m sick of it all! I’m sick of what this world has become!