Weather decisions - Driving in inclament weather

Is this all about that case where the driver of the vehicle that lost control, crossed a median and all that had the least responsibility for the accident?

Edit: I found your post earlier in the thread, it is about that case. I did not know though that the auto driver was intoxicated. Certainly hope Werner does appeal that. What county was it in?

 

We declined a load that would have made us drive through last weekend's snow/ice storm. Good load @ $5.50 per mile.

War Games (the movie) taught me that sometimes the only way to win is to NOT play the game.


Too many forecasters were calling for ice for us to be out there

 

I grew up my later years around the great lakes, and we got LOTS of snow. Before that, we lived in Colorado, at 7500' elevation, so snow is nothing new to me. The first time I drove was in January, 1977 (shortly after the big Buffalo blizzard), and most of my driving big rigs was into and out of Canada. Heavy snow, bitter cold, driving into places like Timmins, ON or Val D'or, PQ. I've driven in 1m of fresh snow, -40°, high winds, you name it. But ICE, that stuff is impossible to drive in, and I've run into it in otherwise-warm locales like Dallas or Jacksonville, FL. Best you can do is pull over, and wait for it to either melt, or for some snow to fall on top so you can get some traction....

 

Foot on the floor! That way when you lose control you can screw things up, while having enough speed to get back on the roadway. Learnt that from the movie Speed.

 

Well... How do you know you're driving on ice if it creeps up on you?

 

I just left LA, I had to sit there for half an extra day, because the winds were whipping gusts up to 80 mph, by the time I left it looked like the apocalypse was bearing down on the city. Absolutely insane. What’s happening over there. I didn’t think I was gonna get out of there. I guess fire is kind of like weather. After this fire is over, it’s gonna be like a nuclear bomb went off around Los Angeles.

 

Exactly! I’ll be a newbie driver very soon. But, I’ve got experience with grain trucks in the winter and I’ll be 60 yrs old very soon. Nobody can tell you what is safe to drive on and what isn’t. That’s a decision you’ve got to make on your own. If you don’t feel safe or comfortable driving on it then park it. Dispatch and others will understand or they won’t. But the main thing is that you won’t be putting yourself or other drivers at risk. I’ve always looked at it like this, if they don’t understand and lose their minds and fire you then there’s other jobs in other places and some might even pay more and appreciate that you aren’t willing to destroy their equipment or kill someone just to get a load delivered on time!

 

In the majority of those videos what I saw was drivers driving too fast for conditions and drivers inattentive to what was happening 15-45 seconds ahead of them. Some going through lights that were on the verge of turning red. There’s really no such thing as an “accident,” it’s always a case of someone doing something that causes an adverse reaction which ends up as a monetary loss or loss of life. Every one of those “accidents” could have been prevented. Some times it’s not the fault of the truck driver, it’s the fault of the driver of the car. But truck drivers have to look out for everyone. We’ve been trained to watch out for people who don’t have the capacity to understand what 80,000lbs in motion has the potential to destroy. I’m a newbie truck driver but growing up on a large farm taught me a lot about the importance of paying attention and understanding the laws of physics. And, I’m almost 60 yrs old.