March 1st I-80 pileup video in progress

Pigs in a blanket?

 

I agree. Very valid points. It amazes me that so many people who live in cold climates still act as if they haven't experienced these conditions. I've driven on ice and sometimes a driver ends up in a position where that has to happen. After that those experiences, I'll just take the day off if possible.

 

This is one of the worst accidents involving trucks I have ever seen,if not the worst. You literally have TRUCKS ON TOP OF TRUCKS. This is a classic case of adverse weather conditions,combined with drivers going too fast for said conditions and following too closely (herd mentality in this type of weather will get you KILLED).

Having said that,this pileup just became a lawyers dream come true and insurance companies nightmare!

 

Pretty much summed it up there sir.

 

At the risk of this turning into a x1 post - here goes.

In the first 3 years of our career, we drove doubles from Boise,ID to Dallas, TX for 2 winter seasons. Very familiar with the route. Often in conditions like this. Often with EMPTY trailers from SLC to DEN. You took it slow and careful in these conditions. We were newbies - even though we'd experienced winter driving and 48 states.

2004-2007. You stopped at truck stops and asked the guy with the snow and ice on his truck where he came from and what the roads were like. You called state weather phone numbers. You called trucker friends. You watched weather maps on the news in the truck stops. You carried chains, and had someone teach you how to put them on. You had a CB radio - it worked, though you teamed and the noise would disturb sleep, it was on at a low volume.

When it would start to snow, and the temps dropped, I'd stop. Get out. And feel the cold, biting wind, the slippery ice beginning to form on the ground. A stark contrast to the climate controlled cab I'd climbed from. You can hear the traffic on the freeway, the cold - the travel of the sound. I'd look at the cab - the sleeper, where my wife was sleeping, tired from her shift.

I'd think to myself. What's at stake? Do I really want to deal with an accident in these conditions? Pull my wife from a wreck? Kill myself? At the least, do paperwork in these temperatures on the side of the road? Have somebody elses' mistake, after my best efforts - ruin my career?

2007 - 2015.

Kansas to California. Same deal, 2 rounds a week. I-40 possessed the same amount of 'stretches' that became treacherous quickly. The Texas panhandle joke - "God put it down - God shall remove it", Moriarty to Tucumcari - "They shut the roads down so the towns at least get SOME revenue for the year".

Over the years we witnessed it become worse - the pileups, carnage, and subsequently the road closures.

A few times, she woke me up. Terrified. She could drive, safer than most men I know - but she knew her limits. My brain was trained to sleep, deeply if needed, yet - at the slightest raising of her voice, I was in full battle mode. I think it came from the training phase, if she was lost, or there was any problem. After all - you have to sleep at some stage, but the mind somehow allows only certain triggers to remove you from slumber.

And up I popped from bed, in underwear, the cowboy swap over while the truck was in motion - and I'd calm her down, and take over, gently gliding along over the glazed and icy patches, until the road cleared, she had some rest, the morning came, or we stopped and chained and carried on, or she felt comfortable enough to carry on. Maybe I slept a few hours a day, maybe I didn't. Who cares.

And we trudged. That's when things were just bad. A wide breadth of winter storm covered all our path, moved with us, and dumped frozen fun upon us, for no reason bar coincidence. And I'd wait.

I'd wait, like @Dave_in_AZ said - till the other buggers had gone to bed. And I'd chain up. And trudge.

US 54 from Tucumcari to Wichita. You probably know it well. The sun had gone down, and all had quit. After a day of fighting, they crammed into truck stops, rest areas and parked, worn out. 400 odd miles at 40 mph - I continued. Nobody else out. No snow plows, nobody. The only idea of where the road was - reflector posts, and feeling my way along rumble strips. The odd stop where availablr for coffee, tighten chains, clear ice and snow from lights and mirrors, and trudge on.

Till daylight. Till clear roads (if they ever cleared). Till you met snow plows, followed them a while, then they peeled off.

One Christmas - she begged me to call in. I said - no, we can make it home for Christmas Eve. So we set out to California. On our return - a system set in and closed much of I-40, and we took the 'southern route' home.

We turned north at Abilene and hit it - ALL THE WAY TO KANSAS. The sun had gone down, and there were stretches where trucks had simply parked in the road. Physically - lights out - stopped in the road. Again - with my stupid promises to my wife in the back of my head - we - I driving - made it in. I drove around the barricades onto the turnpike - a Serbian driver followed, we talked along the way - "You Crazy" he would keep saying - "Just follow me, we'll be OK" I told him.

Apparently they'd hand you a hefty fine for blowing the barricades - I didn't care. Conditions never improved. We made it home late Christmas Day. The only time I lost my cool is when I'd stopped to take bills into the office, bobtail. Couldn't get the darned thing moving - well, finally did. Just the exhaustion and stress blowing out in a screaming fit of rage at the fact we'd made it `1500 miles and . . . well - I left the stupid thing there. Grabbed our gear and in the pick up we went, another treacherous 80 miles to the house.

Get a CB - and use it. I'm tired of hearing the dumb 'con' arguments. CB radios would have saved half this carnage.

Get out and feel the ground. Might give you a wake up call.

Use your bloody technology. Plan your trip. look ahead.

Carry chains up there, and learn how to put 'em on. Not hard. Even a single rail on duals will save your butt.

Park it in advance. Several times we'd check to see I-40 was closed and get a motel in Albuquerque, 40 degrees and clear, whilst traffic stacked up on the frozen tundra, filled with wrecks and trashed careers.

Pack supplies, and blankets - look at those trucks - in the video, busted engines, what's gonna keep you warm?

Put your stupid cell phone down, and pay attention. And when the wreck happens - be the hand trying to save lives, not film crap and post it to the web, and then shiver in your cab "Well, it's too cold to go out there now. . . "

See - told you it would turn all x1 on you.

 

Thst was like reading a Trucking Safety/Romance novel

 

This post is too long.

 

I will be one of them. But I guarantee you I'll be pulling over if it is bad and/or driving slow as heck in the right lane with 4 ways on.

 

That is exactly what gets the big one started. Somebody creeping along like that. If you can't run at a decent speed, then just stop.

 

well I shouldn't say "creeping" but at a safe slow speed. That the road warrants. Bad wording on my part boss man.