Crews Work for Hours to Free Trapped Truck Driver - ABC5 WOI-DT News, Weather, Sports in Des Moines, IA

All I can say is watch the video. The story itself doesn't come close to describing the accident scene. How the hell the Heartland driver is in one piece, let alone alive, is an absolute miracle.

 

Never seen anything like it, either. As of this morning, driver is stable....he'll make it. Apparently, it was so bad that they initially pronounced him dead before they even started cutting out the 'body'. Then he started moving and it turned into a rescue. Definitely a miracle that he survived that.

 

Something tells me that International may have a design flaw in the ProStars. A tractor shouldn't collapse down to allow a trailer to 'ride up' like that. The frame should've taken the worst of that crash, yet it looked perfectly fine.

 

That driver is one of the Luckiest men on earth. Malaki what more than likely happened is the trailer hopped the Steer tire and that led to happened. Heck you can design for about every thing yet the Fates will find some other way to get to you.

 

That's true. I've seen plenty of trucks rear-ending trailers, but have never seen anything like that one.

 

The frame of the tractor is too low to have any effect on the trailer in front. Look at the height of the bed of the trailer. (The ICC bumper is more of a decoration than anything else) It's already above the steers. As the engine gives way for the trailer, the trailer is forced upward. With another 40,000 pushing the tractor, the engine becomes a ramp for the back of the trailer.

I've seen a couple of accidents where one truck rear-ended another. Even a step-deck loaded with steel rode up over the engine and went through the windshield. Everything gets "shaved" off the top of the engine. But, I have never seen one that the truck went that far under the trailer before.

 

I can't believe the driver survived. I think that every other accident that I have witnessed that is similair the driver was killed.

 

I think the biggest factor in this accident was exactly what the trooper said in the interview...."Distracted Driving". I'm wondering if the Heartland driver even reacted enough to activate the brakes before impact. If he was reading a text........or relaxed with his feet on the dash during a phone conversation (I see to many drivers like that), I doubt that he even touched the brake pedal...but...that is simply conjecture on my part.