All preventable? Crazy!

Our youth are more used to getting video when they see shocking stuff. It is frustrating to hear him giggle while this is unfolding in front of him but he did think to help people before ending the short video. Id cut him some slack. He did have enough brains to get well off the road.

I-81 is problematic on a good day. Getting caught in a squall on a mountain road could happen to any one of us. RIP drivers

 

Never ever let someone else, whether another truck or a 4 wheeler, pressure you or influence how you operate.

 

I agree with you but the video of the driver dash cam clearly shows he was going WAY to fast for conditions.
I have driven through many snow squalls for the last 40 years and understand how quick they happen. But when they do(fog and rain also) you immediately adjust your speed and let others know.
I’m not saying there were no truck pileups 20 or 30 years ago but they were few and far between.

 

I.... Um.... Yeah... What a load of tripe!

You can pretend all you want that everyone involved in this are merely victims of poor circumstances, but it's not ever going to make it true.

Follow the Science!

Okay

Science = Logic & Reason

Therefore:

Follow the Logic & Reason!

Notice emoting has no place in that? There is no excusing behavior that directly caused this tragedy, no matter how ridiculously averse some seem to assigning blame.

And I'll leave it at that...

 

Not Even Like 2002, When I Hadn't Been Super Truck Driving Local & OTR Very Long.
I Was A "coward" Because I Preferred SAFETY over stupidity.
There Was NEVER Any Load "so important" To Drive In Bad/Dangerous Conditions!!
Loads Were Late Or Rescheduled According To Weather.

 

I’m not going to bother giving my opinion one way or another. But to everyone who keeps saying “park it “ or they should not have been running. This is not normal bad weather. A snow squall comes out of nowhere. Just last month I was on 78 west just south of where this occurred. I had actually just left the Walmart DC up in the area where this happened. Picked up a load out of Shoemakersville and was heading west on 78. It was sunny one minute and a complete white out the next and then a few miles later it was sunny again and clear roads. I park also when weather is bad. Don’t need anyone running in to my equipment. But conditions like these cannot be planned for. As soon as you get in them and start looking for a place to stop a few miles later it’s over. I slow down to conditions and throw my 4 ways on. When I was in it a lot of drivers were in the left lane passing us thru the squall like nothing was happening. We made it thru it but one person would have made a mistake I could see this happening. This is what we went thru.

 

At this time of year (October through May) you pretty much have to be on guard for snow squalls,especially along I-81 and I-78 in Pennsylvania. They can come up on you with little to no warning. And the National Weather Service had been warning about snow squalls all through the area prior to the accident.

 

For those new drivers who are curious about snow squalls in PA, they are basically raging thunderstorms created by strong north west winds coming off the lakes and blasting down the eastern side of the mountains. A little different than lake effect snow especially when it's reacting with a system moving east. Can cover a treated road within minutes, only to melt away minutes later and have bright sunshine.
The NWS service had warnings up for 24 hours in advance. I won't run in PA with snow squall warnings. Pay attention to the weather radio especially from November through mid April. For that matter really all the time.
I truly believe there are about 5 keys to successfully running a truck.
1. Luck
2. Understanding and respect for weather.

I still don't have a handle on the other three quite yet. Lol.
I'm usually the first one to crush other drivers for driving too fast for conditions. Indeed that's what all the footage shows. What it doesn't show is the dry road one half mile before it happened. My prayers to all involved.
It's typically not worth your while to drive in any snow east of the Mississippi.

 

Here are the other 3.

3. There,
4. But for the grace of God
5. Go I.