I-40 Shutdown near Bucksnort

RIP Drivers, or get well if you survived

 

Actually it happened early this am. Saw it on the news at about 6:30.
I just came through there about noon. West bound was moving just fine. East bound was still shut down and a tanker truck was jackknife facing the wrong direction on the bridge where they’re doing construction. Don’t see how it could’ve been someone crossing over there. Just my observation when I went by.

 

Terrible way to start the day.

 

and then this happened 1200 miles west on 40 about six hours later.

It’s not pretty, but none of them are.

2 killed, another hospitalized in head-on semitrailer collision

 

The problem with these severe and deadly truck crashes [lately] is that so few of them are mechanical failure related such as a blown steer tire. The vast majority are preventable by not driving distracted or fatigued. I’ll also argue that driving faster than 70 mph is asking for even more trouble and more likelihood of problem of a momentary distraction becoming catastrophic.

That extra speed puts the truck past the point of no recovery a few moments sooner and makes any possible recovery that much more difficult or impossible.

 

My last gig our trucks were wide open. At first it was fun doing 80 down the highway. After awhile I decided 70 ish was plenty fast.

 

I’ve driven an ungoverned 386. It was in great mechanical condition but anything above 72 felt very sketchy and twitchy. I drive I-29 through the Dakotas weekly and with an 80 mph speed limit, most trucks don’t go above 75.