Not a smart move for a guy hauling Haz-Mat.

OK, I will admit that my hearing can play tricks on me, but the reason I say he wasn't looking ahead, was because it sounded like he didn't get off the fuel. Sure you don't want to hit your brakes hard on snow, but wouldn't you think he'd get off the accelerator as soon as he saw what was happening?

 

That's what it sounded like to me as well. I mean you can clearly see the guy coming but he made no attempt to do anything until he looked back up and saw him at the last second.

 

Ya think? lol!...yeah he was slow to get slower, maybe he just couldn't believe what he was seeing and was too stunned to react.

 

If that's a shocking event to him then he has no business driving truck, those things happen everyday, its how you handle it that makes you a professional.



I'd bet that driver was playing with his phone, and started screaming when he looked up.

 

I bet his company bans cell phones while driving so that's not possible!!!!

 

People keep posting "why didn't the plow truck driver get a plate number," but given the road/snow conditions, there would have been six inches of snow caked on the back of the trailer.

It does seem the video driver took too long to react (although it can be difficult to tell because the audio may not exactly match the video). If true, was he distracted? Was he daydreaming? Did he not recognize the danger? Did he think the other semi was going to complete the pass in time?

 

Yup,I'd have to agree with that, it's a lot like motorcycling or flying you have to keep a cool head in any situation and he was far from running with ice water in his veins.

Wouldn't doubt the phone thing either, see it all the time with truckers on the I-5.
It really yanks my chain when they are holding up my already slow 62mph truck in the right lane and I move over to pass then as I get up along side they look up from the phone and step on the throttle leaving me hanging unable to complete the pass.

 

LOL

 

Considering the video has audio, and you don't hear him talking. It's easy to assume he wasn't talking on the phone. Now, if he was screwing around with his phone text/surfing/etc,... his control in the snow would be considered amazing.

For those blaming the video driver... is there anything he could've done to stop in time with a) a guy coming right at him while b) he's going downhill with snowpack. Given the apparent distance, I don't see him stopping in time to allow numnuts to get back behind the plow any better than what he managed to do taking the guardrail. It's just a shame he didn't clip the back of the trailer to force the idiot to stay and pay for his mistake.

 

Good point!

He probably could not have stopped in time. That isn't my point at all. My point is that he still has his foot in it several seconds after he should have perceived there was a problem. While he may not have been able to stop, he certainly could have slowed down, and anytime you have a crash, the slower you are going, the less damage gets done.

I agree that he was between the rock and the hard place. But he could have mitigated his problem, some.