Winter Speeds when the weather is bad?

I fully agree with that, not any load is worth that, life is too short as it is

 

We had rain Monday on the I-29 in North Dakota Monday ahead of this Colorado low. I was doing 65 km easing my way to Fargo. Loaded flatdeck blew by me at 110. Two miles up the road I see headlights in the ditch facing me, sideways. Cruse set, he did a 360 and laid it on its drivers side. I stopped to check on him, he’s standing up in his cab on the drivers side window. He was in shock but ok, took 20 min for ems to get to the scene with the roads. The amount of inexperienced drivers I see now is horrendous. I’d love to find some stats on heavy truck accidents in the last few years.

 

To answer the OP's question - there really is no "rule of thumb" regarding speed and poor weather. The more experience a driver has, the more scared he/she/it is likely to be when the weather turns bad.

I've already pulled over twice this winter because of bad road conditions - once with an empty trailer and once with 79,000 lbs gross weight. In both cases, I was slipping and sliding all over the highways (QE2 south of Calgary and I-15 in the canyons south of Great Falls MT) while doing between 40-45 mph. I said #### it, pulled over at rest areas and shut it down. Not because I'm scared of icy roads (I spent years driving in the patch in and around Ft Mac), but because a) I don't want to wind up in the ditch, and b) I don't want some fool in a car or some supertrucker crashing into me!!!

I'll wait until the plow and sanding trucks are out working on the roads. Getting to a pick or drop on time in crappy weather on icy roads just ain't worth the risk of damaging your equipment, yourself, or worst of all someone else. If you're late because of bad roads/weather, boo effing hoo. Better late than never...

 

Motor vehicle accidents/incidents are tracked by the feds, actually. 5 passenger car drivers are killed every week in Canada, on average, as a result of collisions with heavy trucks. Fault isn't indicated in the stats.

 

I say that you drive what ever is comfortable and safe. Doesn't matter what Joe Blow does as he won't be the one talking to LE, safety or the insurance co.

 

Pulled this from another group. Might get through to more drivers if we dumb it down further.

 

I did the right thing. Sat out the snow storm a couple hundred km before the road closure, even fought the urge to get going when the first section of highway opened. Waited until the next morning. Made an hour up the road and got side swiped by some jack ### that looked like he was about to pass the car in front of him, in town.... I hope the s.o.b broke his side window too and gets frostbite while running from a ln accident scene.

 

RIP bus passengers in bc .. driver should have parked or driven slower ..

 

WE are ALL safer with THEM in the ditch, i agree