Trucker nearly clears escape ramp trying to control truck

I can. Ive been there. Not on ramps thought.

I think this is one story that has a happy ending. Probably a total lost of the braking, total screw up on the jaking and no transmission gear worth a ####. And still a mountain filled with people to run over at the bottom.

No wonder he took the ramp. He must have thought some new and very interesting questions as he raced towards the top of that thing...

Some ramps out west go down and down and even more downhill.. no up at all. Might be a mile before you get stopped.

 

Didn't marten have this same problem in Tennessee a while back ?

 

That grade is 6 percent on the northbound side and the truck speed limit is 35, in a modern truck like that the engine brake will do essentially ALL of the holding at 35 in the proper gear. He had to cross the Castaic scales to get there so he was not overloaded.

Which means this was many errors combined, wrong gear selection, failure to use the engine brake, brakes out of adjustment and probably not paying close enough attention to the signs and trying to get down to the truck speed limit after he was already in the 6 percent section.

He hung on until he got to the ramp, got lucky by not getting boxed in before the ramp and the escape ramp saved the day.

Since he had no role in clearing the traffic in front of him and is wholly responsible for the driving and maintenance errors that created this hazard I don't get the "Hero" moniker at all, he is a very lucky and incompetent truck driver.

 

North Carolina On I-40 East of Asheville.

 

More than likely he smoked his brakes. That’s a long body KW T-680 (“Big Bluebird”)and most of those in Marten’s fleet are equipped with automatic transmissions,which means for a downhill grade like that you’re supposed to get on the jake BEFORE YOU EVEN START GOING DOWN THE GRADE. We get DAILY MESSAGES on the Qualcomm regarding slowing down coming down hills and mountains and jake brake use.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the truck is towed to the Jurupa Valley terminal for inspection and investigation.

 

How do we know he wasn't following his GPS? I mean just because it isn't a CRST van....

 

the front axle as well as rear axle smooth the gravel out filling in the inside dual track. side skirts do the same. i have been on that exact run away ramp with a wrecker driver on recovery.

this truck is an AUTO, was told by a marten driver. he didnt know how to use jake brake. auto kept upshifting. so he went for a ride.

also if the gravel is not stired up it will settle and mix with moisture to be come harder deeper. not to mention he could of skimmed the top layers. causing his distance.

 

I bet there are a lot of us drivers that don’t know how to go down a mountain with an automatic.

 

Lock it in and pick your gear ...depends on how the ecm is set up too.