A winter story

[RockyMtnProDriver]

About two weeks ago, one of my ex students came by to ask my opinion. She had been coming home from a switch with a 53 foot van on the back of her Pete and as she was approaching an S turn, she lost steering control. After talking to her for about an hour I got the story. She was diving pretty slow as the roads where icy and when she entered the first part of the S, she started to turn the wheel and it did not respond. She was now heading towards the ditch on the right hand side of the road.

Once she got off the ice on the center of the road, she got traction and the unit shot across the road. As he got to the other side (right beside the ditch) she corrected back to the right and it shot across the road again coming out of the last part of the S turn.

She pulled over and got her heart going again....gathered up her courage and drive the rest of the way home, which was about 2 hours.

She came in and asked me what she had done wrong. Nothing, I told her, you just cannot see well enough to see all the ice and eventually you get bit by it.

Then she asked me what I would have done. I told her I would have been calling Dispatch because even if I had made it through the first part of the S, I would never have made it through the last part.

She could not get her head around it. Her, driving for two years and this her first year in the hills at night in the winer, and me with a million miles or more with a very significant background running A-trains in the mountains in the winter.

She figured for sure that she made a mistake and that caused the event.

She asked me why I would have ditched.

I told her it would have been because I would not have been traveling 40 mph like she was, but probably closer to 55 or 60.

I would have wrecked not because of my lack of experience, but because of the time I have under my belt. I would simply have been driving faster than her, and the only reason she did not wreck was due to her inexperience and her lack of speed due to it. Anyone driving faster than her would have ditched. All the driving time I have would not have pulled my fat out of the fire on that one.

There is a real lesson in that for all you new drivers.

[Uturn2001]

Over confidence is often a big contributing factor to accidents, and I read a report once that those with between 5 and 10 years of experience are more likely to be involved in a serious accident than a rookie.

[Graymist]

This will be my first winter of truck-driving. I'm quite apprehensive, to say the least. Today, on my way back from Nisku ( an industrial suburb south of Edmonton ) to Sherwood Park ( where our yard is located ), it was pretty much white-knuckle driving for me, even though the roads were clear and dry ( especially the new Anthony Henday extension )....the temperature with windchill, was about -25c though.

Winter-driving is a big monkey on my back, which I need to conquer this winter.

[Roadhog]

These first freezes are especially bad, with the fact that many people haven't slowed down their driving habits yet. Really need to keep watch for people spinning out, and prepare to not tangle up with them.

Another point to make is, this time of the year, many of the secondary roads are not getting salted or sanded yet. This year also, more than in past years, County Road Commission budgets are leaner than ever.
My County and many others are under staffed. Our State is robbing Peter to pay Paul, and we will see the effects of lower road maintenance this winter. I suspect many other State budgets are bad too, and Road Commissions will be cut back.

[Orangetxguy]

About two weeks ago, one of my ex students came by to ask my opinion. She had been coming home from a switch with a 53 foot van on the back of her Pete and as she was approaching an S turn, she lost steering control. After talking to her for about an hour I got the story. She was diving pretty slow as the roads where icy and when she entered the first part of the S, she started to turn the wheel and it did not respond. She was now heading towards the ditch on the right hand side of the road.

Once she got off the ice on the center of the road, she got traction and the unit shot across the road. As he got to the other side (right beside the ditch) she corrected back to the right and it shot across the road again coming out of the last part of the S turn.

She pulled over and got her heart going again....gathered up her courage and drive the rest of the way home, which was about 2 hours.

She came in and asked me what she had done wrong. Nothing, I told her, you just cannot see well enough to see all the ice and eventually you get bit by it.

Then she asked me what I would have done. I told her I would have been calling Dispatch because even if I had made it through the first part of the S, I would never have made it through the last part.

She could not get her head around it. Her, driving for two years and this her first year in the hills at night in the winer, and me with a million miles or more with a very significant background running A-trains in the mountains in the winter.

She figured for sure that she made a mistake and that caused the event.

She asked me why I would have ditched.

I told her it would have been because I would not have been traveling 40 mph like she was, but probably closer to 55 or 60.

I would have wrecked not because of my lack of experience, but because of the time I have under my belt. I would simply have been driving faster than her, and the only reason she did not wreck was due to her inexperience and her lack of speed due to it. Anyone driving faster than her would have ditched. All the driving time I have would not have pulled my fat out of the fire on that one.

There is a real lesson in that for all you new drivers.

Back in winter of 1992-1993, an old friend that I worked with, was traveling north up hiway 97, dropping down Blewett Pass in Washington state. As Luther was easing down through the King Creek-Rubby Creek curves, he rounded the last curve at the top of the Ruby creek straight-away, and saw all the pretty lights that go along with wrecks at the bottom end of that straight-away. It was a Reddaway truck with a laid over set of joints!!

Luther said he simply took his foot of the brake to downshift a gear, and lost the truck. :shock: He swung the truck & trailer around a full 360 dregrees, then went back around again 180 degrees. :shock: Ended up sitting on the south bound shoulder of the hiway, facing back up the hill. :dung: :dung: :dung:
He was driving a 92 4-axle T-800 pulling a 4 axle trailer, loaded to the gills with 11,800 gallons of unleaded. Luth turned down every load to Wenatchee the rest of the winter !!!

He didn't even tweak a fender of the entire unit doing the acrobatics!!

[Trukrswyfe]

Live in that area right now. Nasty storm just blew in and tons of spin outs have close I 90 to the truck stop at North Bend.

[Mackman]

where ya been Rocky :?:

[Jackrabbit379]

Yeah, we had some snow in the area.

Seymour,Tx, which is 50 miles west of Wichita Falls. They probably had atleast 4 inches of snow the other night. I had no problem. I kept looking all night, to make sure that my trailer tires were spraying water. Yet, there were cars, and pickups in the ditch. Amazes me. Some people dont have the sense to let off the throttle. :P

[RockyMtnProDriver]

where ya been Rocky :?:

I have been working on my business Mackman. Had a few rubs that I had to sort out and adjustments that I had to make. It has kept me busy. I have popped in on occasion to read some of the posts but stayed away from responses.

Nice to see the old crew is still around.

[COLT]

One mistake I see too often is, drivers only driving in the center of their lane... ?

When it snows and it's getting icy, move off the other tracks that have been turned to ice.

A number of times over the years ( or more I've come into a corner a bit too fast and had to snuggle up to the guardrail to get traction, or when climbing hills, get over, off the shiny ice... where the sand is.... :wink:

Off highway, I climb hills on the wrong side often, it works.

[RockyMtnProDriver]

Off highway, I climb hills on the wrong side often, it works.

I have backpedaled all the way up the East side of the Kootenay pass in the downhill lane just to get up and over the hill. And that is almost three miles long.

Not recommended to drive that long in anyone else's lane, but at 6 am, I was the only one on the hill, well, the only one out of 8 unites that did not spin out in the same three miles. There was about 15 trucks on the other side ( in a five mile distance) that could not get up and most of them had chains on.

Guy that I passed at the top later told me he spun out at 9 the previous night, and until I made it over, no one else had.

Just luck on my part that I hit when I did, and went up the way I did. I would have been sitting up there like everyone else except for the timing.

[COLT]

What road chanel do you guys use down there Rocky ?

We use LADD 1, but I don't have it on unless it's realy bad. I got 155 Chanels.... Radio will hold 396....

[RockyMtnProDriver]

What road channel do you guys use down there Rocky ?

We use LADD 1, but I don't have it on unless it's really bad. I got 155 Chanel's.... Radio will hold 396....

Colt, I don't have a radio in my trucks. I mostly use a BlackBerry that I have set up to look at the Webcams on the hwys and also the road condition reports. All I have to do is get in Cell range, which is every 20 miles or so and I can actually look at the road. Here is the webcam at the top of Kootenay pass.

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/bchighwaycam/index.aspx?cam=5

By the way, that looks pretty good to me, taking into account on some days you cant even see the bend for the fog or snow.

Mostly I figure, what the hell, the road is open, I go. The road is closed, I don't.