Swift double fatal I-8 San Diego

The AMT will follow you down through the gears as you slow. Remember one of it's prime directive... is to stay in gear where possible. It will bypass a gear or two and downshift two or three if necessary should you slow rapid enough.

Remember that trans will not go into nuetral until just before you stop at the traffic light. Then it will select a appropriate gear (IF the tractor is provided with a inclinometer in addition to other things for grade sensing...) for your green light.

Those AMT's have gotten VERY smart. And the ones we had as far as I am concerned were flawless.

 

Lead paint?

 

If you insinuating that it's a Swift tractor. It could have been ANY company that had this accident. (Large, small, O/O, or contracted, doesn't matter)

 

This crash is on the local news here every day. They show statistic that Swift had 2500 crashes in last 2 years, 55 serious injuries. They need to be shut down pronto!

 

Well, that's not going to happen. Even if it did, what would replace them? (Buy their assets and accounts)

Same ####, different day.

 

I didn't see anything in the article about hazmat and didn't see any placards. But if they were indeed empty and had placards, oh boy.

 

Actually if the trailer is old enough that is a real possibility.

One of the old time tradition twice a year is to go out onto the iron steps behind our home which was built in 1925 or so *(Filled with lead paint mind you...) pick the rust and then apply nice new lead coating.

That changed in the mid 70's I think when they started banning the stuff.

 

Good Gawd! What a mess. I found it interesting that the trooper was talking about checking the drivers qualifications, sobriety,etc. then he put emphasis on the log book. Swift is pure ELD. Why would he even talk about log books? Prayers for the family.

 

If you brake heavily the electronic clutch actuator knocks it out of gear as close to instantly as a human can detect, and it will stay out of gear till the speed stabilises enough for it to put it into the appropriate gear. If you keep hard braking to a stop it wont engage again until the truck stops then if the gear selector is still in drive it will pre select the gear it wants to pull away in.
Its very predictable and doesnt take much getting used to for an experienced driver, there is no inherent difficulty or awkwardness at all using one.

I was nervous about buying one, but after the last 18 months or so with one Iwouldnt want a manual again.

 

Does anybody have any familiarity with the interchange they were taking? I'm wondering if the lane they were in was heavily rutted or had sudden level changes that can grab your steers and yank you to the side.

You have to be ready AT ALL TIMES for sudden steering inputs you weren't expecting. Better yet anticipate the need to counter steer by eyeballing the uneven road surface (although if the driver was also merging, she may have been concentrating on making the merge instead of looking at the road surface).