Horrible crash in Lakewood CO, I70 closed both directions. 12 vehicles 4 semi huge fire

The Ford is using a form of water braking or chemical fluid to stop planes when catching them now. It will not be too far of a stretch to see our engines using that technology at some point when it suits them.

 

Just as I suspected. A Spanish trucking company hired this driver who couldn't read or write English.. what does that tell you? They also had a history of brake problems.

Prior violations for company I-70 crash driver works for
Trucker accused of fatal crash worked for company with history of brake issues

 

Apparently getting a Class A CDL is easy in some places. The system is corrupt and has been for years.

 

K

no where in the article did it say the company was based out of Spain. I did see where it is based out of Houston, I am assuming Houston Texas. I will pull out world atlas to see if there is a Houston Spain later.

 

I have a problem with the dot on this.
If the company had been written up 10 times (just for brakes) out of 19 inspections, why wasn't their authority pulled?????
If they had written them up for a driver or drivers not speaking or reading english, why did they not pull that driver out of the truck and suspend his license??

 

And be accused of racism and xenophobia????

 

We are not Soviet.

DOT requires that he read understand English for highway signs. And probably speak enough of it to deal with the public.

As far as I am concerned, the videos if that is his truck, giving me no reason to believe otherwise, he failed just about every sign on that mountain downgrade.

 

The prior violations bring up another possibility I hadn't really thought about before. Obviously if the system loses air, the spring brakes will activate and should stop the truck or at least start your brakes on fire. But what if his brakes were so far out of adjustment that he just wasn't getting any braking power on most or all of the wheels? That would be brake failure of sorts.

Of course, if that's the case, it should have been caught on a proper pre-trip. Heck, if they were that far out of adjustment, you would think the driver would notice it trying to stop at the fuel pump at the truck stop and do something about it. So, still on the driver, especially since he didn't use the runaway ramp.

 

I am not trying to start an argument at all, but I have two things to say contrary to this:

1. There is no driver shortage. If there were, we would all be making more money. The response to a shortage of qualified, skilled labor is to raise pay, and real pay in this industry has been flat for decades, and lower than it was a generation ago. The driver shortage news stories are b.s. made up by the megas.

2. I agree that the industry needs better drivers, but more training won't really fix the problem. Right here in this thread we've had personal stories of several drivers who did not receive extensive training and yet managed to drive for years without major incidents (as far as I know, of course). There's more training and more regulation than ever before, and yet there are still incidents like this occurring. I think the answer to better drivers is higher pay that will attract better candidates so that trucking companies can be pickier about who they put in the truck.

Why not spend the money and effort to enforce existing laws? This guy can't read English, so how could he understand what the runaway ramp sign meant when he passed it? The company he drives for has had drivers cited for this more than once. They had a history of failed brake inspections. I'm sorry that I have to point it out, but 19 violations in two years on five trucks is pretty bad. An average of two brake violations per truck over those two years is pretty bad. Why wasn't their authority pulled?

 

In the old Manual slack adjuster days with either a 9/16th wrench open and closed end and a half inch wrench same type it was about every other day I adjusted brakes on the mack milk tanker trailer truck. Usually you can tell very well that the brakes are blatantly out of adjustment. Part of the tells is you get to used to the same routes the same routine and the applying of brakes in the same distance from the same stop sign. When the truck got sluggish or lazy for stopping then it's time to adjust.

The auto slack adjusters took that out of the equation for the most part.

You CAN have enough fade of sorts to throw the whole thing out of whack to where the emergency spring applications would not maybe have enough stroke rod reach to apply with power pads to drum. You would think you can engineer a fail safe way to apply stroke or cam etc so that when the springs apply, those pads will lock into the drums regardless of the situation.

I feel that panic took over his mind. The rocking of his cab body running the truck off the road at the escape ramp entrance curve showed erractic and without purpose except one mind set.

GTFO out MY WAY PEOPLE !!!!

That is the last thing you want and continue rolling on a run away at that point officially. The panic taking over the mind.

For me mountain work is a form of battle. Ive been scared before but I absolutely retained control of the fear, I allowed it to be, accepted that I was scared but did not give in to it by means of making a decision and follow through for better or worse. Whatever it might be.

This kid failed on so many levels he essentially by the final act of swerving INTO a mass of traffic killed the people and hurt others. Thus the charges.

I know I use the word kid. Keep in mind Im in the mid 50's when you are very young at 21 or whatever you are a kid. A pup still.