Sad day in MI

Michigan gives little warning ahead of temporary road closures.
But this is the place were they get rid of turn lanes and have you U Turn a block down where traffic has not started to slow for intersection.

 

I was in Lansing, MI a few weeks ago when another semi blew by my trailer when I was going back into the right land so they could pass. I'm governed and later had a remark about, 'Another Canadian Trucker slowing down the the lanes'. I Never seen speeding help accidents yet when some drivers want to run 75 Mph or even 80 Mph when it states trucks are 65 Mph. Not saying that speed was the cause of this accident however it seems that a good majority do speed.

 

First to be clear i agree......to a point. Speeding is dumb and i personally try to stick to posted limits or close to. But i can also understand wanting to flow with traffic. Moving slow when everyone else is doing 70+ is a great way for some ####### on a phone to plow into your rig or them to panic and swerve hard to avoid said rear ending and CAUSE these pileups. Every time i stick to the limit vs try to flow with traffic within reason it seems the number of almosts, near misses and strikes rises by a massive amount. God help me if im going way below the limit due to weight and hills.

And while the argument could be made im following the law and not at fault If something happens along those lines. As drivers the mindset is gulity by default of being there...see werner case as a perfect example. While im not against slowing the hell down. I AM against differing speed limits for differing vehicles as i think its a major contributer to the cause for a lot of major wrecks. So it then becomes a question of what is safer. Sticking to the speed limit in heavy traffic or flowing with said traffic. Im also against governed trucks as the ability to speed up to get around slower traffic (i.e me when my 400 horsepower slow ### is stuck crawling up a hill at 20 below the limit) will reduce risk more then allowing higher speeds increases it.

 

Up until a few years ago Michigan limited oversize to 45mph on the interstate. It was a compleat #### show, even running 55 like we can now. I had a permit for 15’4” tall that ran across the UP and then 140 miles stright south from the Mac, they wanted me to run 35 the entire route, including the interstate. Absolutely asinine.

 

The downsides to a modern society,,

 

Sure seems simple, but as long as human beings are in control, we simply cannot have zero risk. We almost never hear of a plane crash anymore, I think equipment had a lot to do with that, but with a truck, or bus, the publics safety is contingent solely on the operators condition. I'm sure the people whose families were affected, would love to hang 'em high, Gunsmoke style,, justice served, but is it really? I didn't read the story, but this driver didn't wake up thinking, I'm going to kill some people today. We have gotten so removed from what is expected of a truck driver, quite frankly, I don't see an end to this anytime soon. Last year, there were 170,716 semi truck accidents in the US, resulting in over 5,000 deaths, and 86,000 injuries. Any other industry that puts the public in that much of a risk, surely would be cause for alarm, yet,,

 

4 dead, 17 hurt after semi truck plows into standstill traffic
And the lawyers’ dream come true!
This is one of the reasons why insurance premiums are rising!