It almost happened

[Malaki86]

Today I had one of those "Oh sweet Jesus" moments and I definitely don't want it to happen again.

I was driving north on I-81 through Virginia through snow and somewhat covered roads. Everyone was pretty much behaving. Traffic was going at about 50mph and no one was out in the hammer lane. In front of me were 3 cars. Behind me was a car and a straight truck. About 1/2 mile behind those was another bunch of vehicles.

Anyway, we're just driving along when the lead car in front of me suddenly slows to an absolute crawl (probably about 5mph). I had plenty of space in front of me and knew the passing lane was clear. I signal and move over (while slowing for the cars in front of me).

I get past the car directly in front of me when suddenly the 2nd car (of the 3) decides to pull in front of me at about 5-10mph. At the time, I was probably less than a car length from that car and doing about 40-45. When I hit the brakes, I immediately lost traction and started sliding.

I knew that I wouldn't be able to slow down to miss that car so I headed for the median. As soon as the tractor was in the median, the truck started to jackknife. I jammed the clutch in and managed to get the truck going straight again, running in the median alongside the road surface. The car who'd pulled out in front of me apparently saw what happened and moved back over into the right lane.

I was trying to keep the truck moving so I wouldn't end up hung up in the median and then was trying to get back onto the road. The car that was immediately behind me to begin with stayed in the right lane. The straight truck, however, decides that now is a good time to pass me (with me running the median). I laid on the air horn, hit the signal and started creeping back onto the road. He saw this and immediately backed off to let me back in.

This entire ordeal lasted at best maybe 5-10 seconds and it absolutely terrified me. I just hope and pray that I never experience it again (or anything similar).

After I finally got back on the road, someone yelled on the radio "Hey WST - how the hell did you manage to save that?" Apparently during the sliding into the median, the trailer also started to tip. I didn't even notice that through it all.

Oh - my reply to his question: "Gimme a few minutes. I'm trying to dig this seat cushion out of my butt."

[Mackman]

I had something like that happened to me before. My heart gets racing so fast i dunno how it doesn't blow up. Also good job on re covering it.

[Orangetxguy]

Today I had one of those "Oh sweet Jesus" moments and I definitely don't want it to happen again.

I was driving north on I-81 through Virginia through snow and somewhat covered roads. Everyone was pretty much behaving. Traffic was going at about 50mph and no one was out in the hammer lane. In front of me were 3 cars. Behind me was a car and a straight truck. About 1/2 mile behind those was another bunch of vehicles.

Anyway, we're just driving along when the lead car in front of me suddenly slows to an absolute crawl (probably about 5mph). I had plenty of space in front of me and knew the passing lane was clear. I signal and move over (while slowing for the cars in front of me).

I get past the car directly in front of me when suddenly the 2nd car (of the 3) decides to pull in front of me at about 5-10mph. At the time, I was probably less than a car length from that car and doing about 40-45. When I hit the brakes, I immediately lost traction and started sliding.

I knew that I wouldn't be able to slow down to miss that car so I headed for the median. As soon as the tractor was in the median, the truck started to jackknife. I jammed the clutch in and managed to get the truck going straight again, running in the median alongside the road surface. The car who'd pulled out in front of me apparently saw what happened and moved back over into the right lane.

I was trying to keep the truck moving so I wouldn't end up hung up in the median and then was trying to get back onto the road. The car that was immediately behind me to begin with stayed in the right lane. The straight truck, however, decides that now is a good time to pass me (with me running the median). I laid on the air horn, hit the signal and started creeping back onto the road. He saw this and immediately backed off to let me back in.

This entire ordeal lasted at best maybe 5-10 seconds and it absolutely terrified me. I just hope and pray that I never experience it again (or anything similar).

After I finally got back on the road, someone yelled on the radio "Hey WST - how the hell did you manage to save that?" Apparently during the sliding into the median, the trailer also started to tip. I didn't even notice that through it all.

Oh - my reply to his question: "Gimme a few minutes. I'm trying to dig this seat cushion out of my butt."

Hey....My most terrify-ing moment in a truck, EVER.

I was north bound on I-5 headed to Arlington WA out of the Seattle terminal, when I hit the deck of the Snohomish River bridge, on the north side of Everett WA. I was doing about 35 because of the intermittent packed snow. As soon as I came around the corner and hit the top of the bridge, I saw dozens of cars scattered helter-skelter down the length of the bridge deck.

I had taken my foot off the throttle before I was on the bridge deck, but still needed to get slowed down. Touched the brake pedal...and that fricking truck and trailer started dancing down the deck. That bridge is sloped downward across the river, running from the top of a hill down to the flats of the river valley bottom.

I grabbed the horn with my left hand, applied power with my right foot...and for whatever reason, squeezed through about 25 cars, pickups and SUV's without hitting any of them...and I am pretty sure the trailer was sideways to the truck most of the way down that deck! I pulled off onto the shoulder of the road and calmed down, after getting off the bridge!
A trooper that was in the mess, worked his way down to me, to see if I was ok. He was the one who told me that I didn't hit anything...and was amazed that I didn't. He didn't know it, but I was seriously over-loaded. I had on 12,875 gallons of gasoline...the max we could physically put into all 5 compartments of the combined truck & trailer units we used. The entire unit weighed in at about 155,000 pounds. That was in January of 1990 and I was in a 4-axle KW COE straight truck pulling a 40 foot 4-axle trailer.

Never did it again (over-load the truck like that) !! And yes...there was an incident report filed with the company, because that trooper made one out on scene, even though I did not get a ticket. He made the report, because I slid on the bridge, the same as he had, and needed proof for his commander that it was bad. His car hit 2 others, and was hit three times, by others. I was one of the few who didn't hit anyone or thing, and the only truck that crossed the bridge during that period.
While we were standing there talking, we looked back at the bridge, and from where we were standing, you could see the glare on the ice, of the fire department's truck lights, as they were moving onto the bridge....two FD units lost traction and slid as well.

Because of the numbers of cars already stopped on the bridge deck, as well as knowing how badly over-loaded with gas that I was, that was the single most frightening moment of my life. Worse than falling out of the derrick of a drilling rig in 1979.


I said lot's of "thanks" while I unloaded that gas in Arlington.

[Mr. Ford95]

Jesus Stan, you were a disaster waiting to happen there.

Mal, that sounds like a nice butt clenching experience you had, glove save and a beauty on your part bud.

[Snowman7]

Nice driving guys!

[Uturn2001]

Can't even imagine what that was like. I jackknifed my rig (no damage) sliding down a hill in a truck stop and was only going about 2 mph, trying to turn before the hill when it happened and that took me about 30 minutes to calm down afterwards.

[Orangetxguy]

Jesus Stan, you were a disaster waiting to happen there.

Mal, that sounds like a nice butt clenching experience you had, glove save and a beauty on your part bud.

As I noted...I was way over-loaded. That was during the period of time, when the terminal manager was "pressing volume delivered" and not so much safety. A few weeks after that, one of the trucks was involved in a suicide. Everybody stopped hauling "over loads" after that, and the manager changed his tune on volume. Over the course of 14 years, it is surprising the different management ATTITUDES that occured.

Every winter after that incident, whenever I approached that bridge, I did so with a huge portion of trepidation.

[Malaki86]

I'll be going through the same area sometime tomorrow. I just hope I can see the tracks as to what all I did there.

What really amazed me was how everything I've learned over the years came to me 100% on instinct when the time came. It was "Do this, then that, push this, turn this way, etc" - all without having a split second to think about it.

[Windwalker]

You did a really good job. I've had more than one of those moments. You grab at everything, including air. I've also had one of those moments when I hit the car that pulled out in front of me, and gave the driver a chopper ride to the hospital... It's not easy to bring the rig back onto the road once you've gone into the grass. And, it doesn't go against you to sit on the side of the road trying to collect yourself for the next half an hour. Someone gives you a half a cup of coffee, and you spill most of that from shaking. Then, an hour later, down the road, you realize your heart is still pounding.