Travel ban ticket in Pa

While I don't completely disagree with what has been said, what about the "professional driver" who in obviously incremental weather and deteriorated road conditions should be checking on road conditions via several available methods where I am certain he would have found out about the ban. No different that checking for low bridges and other restrictions en route.

With all the crashes that occurred yesterday in PA not all of them are noobs driving for the megas, plenty were "old hands" who "know how to drive in snow" ... yeah, I see plenty of experienced drivers crashing in adverse weather (and good weather too) all the time. No load is so important that safety should ever be compromise. Unless of course, dispatch says it has to be there, then the "git er done" mentality is okay.

A good friend who had about 25 years driving quit and became a boilermaker (union) and now realizes trucking is about the only industry that does not believe in There is No Level of Acceptable Risk in the workplace. Risk can be eliminated, but people are the weak link and moreso these days tend to do whatever they want and ignore the rules.

 

Trucking is one of the most dangerous occupations there is by the nature of the job.
You can not eliminate all risk in anything in life, that’s the problem with our coddled modern day society that seeks “ safe spaces”. And “ following all the rules” Set by Who ? With what verifiable real world experience. These truck bans are absolutely ridiculous grand standing headline grabbing events orchestrated by
Media ###### like Andrew Cuomo who holds
Press conferences for everything he does . If the highway is too dangerous , shut it down for everyone. I’ve been driving in Northeast winters for 32 years , and have seen many bad truck wrecks. Many are greenhorn newbies driving fleet trucks, many are inexperienced “ third world “ container haulers driving aggressively and over their head to get to their next cheap load. a few of the real bad ones were drunk French Canadian drivers , and that was told to me by State troooers at the wrecks. Nothing against French Canadians , but I’ve seen a few buying booze at truck stops and getting into their trucks. Few I’ve seen are experienced drivers driving nice spec rigs, some but not all these
“Experienced drivers wrecking all the time”. I’ve had close calls in bad weather , most due to four wheelers or inexperienced drivers than the weather itself. The biggest problem is the caliber of what they let drive a truck today , it’s embarrassing to say the least. With automatic transmissions, GPS, drop and hook, no touch loads and companies desperate to put ##### in seats , there isn’t the culling of the weak and low skill level like there used to be , now the industry is full of drivers that would have washed out and went on to their next career years ago. More often than not it’s these goofballs that cause the bad wrecks thinking they know it all in the 6 months and 3 employers they have been driving , not the guy who’s been out here 20 or 30 years and has learned through experience how to drive in most conditions and when to park it and call it a day.
Yesterday I drove 3 hours in the snow to get loaded
When it turned to freezing rain and ice , I decided to
Park it and put it in our shop to fix a few small things and wait out the ice storm. I didn’t need a politician. Who loves to be in front of a camera to tell me that .
Experience told me that.

 

Paid for by whom?

I'm sure the good people of PA are sick of getting taxed with nothing to show for it.

 

I 90 between Buffalo and Erie had 3 rigs laying on their side this morning. One burned down to crumbs. Other one a Werner, third one couldn't see logos or letters on trailer. Bans will continue and probably intensify because truck drivers keep screwing up.

 

No

No alert through phones, but it was on every news page in PA, PA511, Penndots website, and most flashing indians i saw leading up to the storm.


It is in any future drivers best interest to follow the weather and state road reports while driving professionally, i thought we did that, but apparently not.

Also, at 0945 it is 3.75 hours past the start of the full cmv ban on i81 north of i78, you didnt think it was worth looking at the weather, news.... see if there was a wreck that shut the highway down 5 miles up the road? I mean at 0945 it was snowing pretty good 35 miles SE of you.... hazleton could only have been getting hammered.

https://www.penndot.gov/pages/all-news-details.aspx?newsid=595

This is PA's 3rd CMV ban for the winter. Its nothing new here, since that big f up by penndot back in November.

 

If the road is closed to trucks, there should be adequate and official traffic control devices signaling that. Phones and Internet sites are not them and cannot be. If the op found himself on a stretch of the road where there were no signs informing him about the ban then the ticket should be dismissed. ....I 76 had enough signs to inform about the ban.

 

While that is a great point, having ignorance to NOT know or lacking multiple resources to know as to what you are getting into when the weather is snowing in the NE, should be a ticketable offense.


Its 2019 in a first world country and its snowing.... hmmm let me see what the road conditions are before i put it all on the line for a load of whatever you have....

 

The only acceptable method of alerting drivers to the ban is signs on the road. Not phone alerts (I’ve never had an alert concerning road conditions come to my phone), not newspapers, not a website, not an AM radio station, and not a CB channel since only 10% of drivers use them anyway. Obviously if he ignored signs along his route then he earned that ticket. I agree that if the roads are that bad then ALL vehicle traffic except emergency, and maintenance vehicles should be banned.

I always check road reports, and plan my trips ahead. Some guys just wing it, and wind up in bad situations like this.

 

Thank you for your post. I was not going to respond anymore on this post but now I will. You wake up in your truck and look out the windshield, I'm sure when the driver got up he didn't see sunshine and birds singing in the trees, he saw snow, lots of it everywhere with possible high winds. I lived in NJ for 40 years, don't hold that against me, they don't ban trucks or shut the roads down unless its really bad, white out conditions, blizzard,Nor'easter style, bad. Unless a person hasn't driven a truck in the last 20 years he/she wouldn't know that State Emergencies are relaid in more ways then the CB radio they were used to. We have local radio, TV, Cell Phones, Apps, Alerts, road signs, and others. A good company will alert,warn their drivers of such incidents. When the OP got up and saw the bad weather that's the time to go on your phone and see how bad it is. I remember when living in NJ the local police would come around on their PA announcing the State of Emergency. In the old days you had to stop at a public phone to get directions, now they are sent thru qualcomm or phones, never have to leave your cab. Also you can Google the delivery or drop off to see what the best way to their docks, including weather and traffic.

Don't get me wrong, I drive also, I feel for the OP, but it is what it is. Look they can write you up for a headlight that was working when you did your pre-trip and went out in one of the millions of pot hole we encounter every week, they also expect you to know one tail light is out as you drive down the road.

If I was driving down a road, I have never been on before, with a speed limit of 60mph and turn left or right unto a street that has a speed limit of 30 mps, I haven't seen any speed limit signs yet, and I do 40 and get stop, do you think I will get a ticket? or they have to let me go because I didn't know the speed limit on that road. Yes up to the officer, but most likely I will be fine. Is it fair, maybe not, but it is what it is.

Edit" most States have 511 website.
511PA

 

YES! That's exactly what i was looking for but you said it.

Just because it wasn't on a sign on the interstate in the OP's 5 miles of travel does not exclude him from knowing it existed. It was posted on numerous resources at the op's control to get that information.

How many other trucks DID know about the ban? But op didnt get the word?

Im not picking on the OP, simply arguing the point to some others that because you didnt know of the ban, you should be free and clear of the "ban" ticket.