Two semi collide, Oil Tanker and other, other driver dies - Utah

I have some early opinions about this incident but will keep them to myself except to say ... I hope that load of crude was worth making the summit attempt during a bad part of the storm, in the dark. Rocky mountain doubles probably?

SMH

 

Today they have some different comments. Not a crude oil truck was rolling backward. Someone was front of crude oil truck and start rolling backward.
Wednesday night, a semitruck was on the right-hand side of the road and began moving slowly backward in snowy conditions at about 10:50 p.m., according to Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Jed Jorgensen. A semitruck hauling crude oil was traveling about 15 miles per hour and tried to drive around the other semi. The two vehicles collided and the tanker ruptured.
Interesting was the sign flashing CHAIN REQUIRED. Now this lazy to put chain on driver will get away with just citation?
What speed was traveling Voyager unable to stop uphill and collide with trailer.

 

Voyager driver died in the wreck..

 

After watching another news accounting of the incident, I'm wondering if the dry van truck may have stopped on the shoulder near the summit, set the brake(s) and went about whatever he stopped for (remove chains?), and the truck later started sliding backwards back down the hill, perhaps the trailer began entering the main travel lane area. Some new snow can be that slick in the right circumstances.

 

Especially the grainy, low moisture stuff.

 

Possible. I was thinking the driver missed a gear getting from high to low range. It's steep, with slick conditions you have to make that shift early and get into top gear low range gently. If you miss it you can quickly come to a complete stop, then it becomes a matter of getting underway on a slick, steep uphill. Then I can see panic setting in, maybe stalling the engine, trying to start the truck with your clutch in and rolling backwards.

Bad deal all around.

 

Looking at the pictures. Only the back quarter of the tanker is damaged. Meaning the dry van hit somewhere back there. Yet the front of the trailer of the dry van is burned off. So the dry van was possibly jack knifing and cut into the tanker??

https://twitter.com/KSLSharaPark/status/834790403421282305/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

 

Hard to figure out what happens coz media reports are not accurate.
This morning report says driver was from Colorado. Now driver is from Arizona. I think all details came mostly from reporter imagination
NEW: The driver killed in the semi crash/fire on I-80 was from Colorado. He drove for Voyager Express, according to #UHP. @KSL5TV #KSLA

7:18 AM - 23 Feb 2017

JEREMY RANCH, Summit County — A truck driver from Arizona was killed Wednesday when his semitrailer ruptured a tanker hauling crude oil, which ignited and burned his cab, according to the Utah Highway Patrol.

Wendell Lewis, 67, of Maricopa, was going uphill near Parleys Summit on I-80 just before 11 p.m. UHP troopers say Lewis was moving slow or had come to a stop due to the snowpacked road.

Another semitrailer that was pulling double tankers filled with crude oil attempted to go around Lewis' truck. That's when Lewis' semitrailer "rolled back and the trailer hit the tank of the first semi, tearing it open. The tank began spilling crude oil. The crude oil then ignited," UHP troopers said in a statement.

Investigators believe that Lewis may have been trying to get his semitrailer moving again. But when that happened, the truck slid backward and may have jack-knifed, hitting the large tanker, which UHP Sgt. Todd Royce said was "full."

Park City Fire Chief Paul Hewitt said the double tankers were hauling approximately 11,000 gallons of crude oil in three compartments. Two of the compartments remained intact.

 

Here's kind of an interesting twist to this. Because of this accident, WB I-80 was shut down. So several four wheelers decided to follow their GPS directions to go around the accident. Totally ignoring the posted sign, clearly saying the road is not maintained in the winter! I think it was 13 of them that ended up stuck and needing rescue...
I guess truckers aren't the only ones who get overly confident with their GPS units.....