Winter time – Is that load that important?

Since winter is falling upon us, I thought I would bring this question up.

Is that load you are pulling that important, if you run into adverse conditions?

Obviously company’s will tell you to keep rolling, and get that load to the receiver.

But, who makes the call? The call I am referring to is the one, is the weather to bad for me to continue rolling down the road.

Out on the road, you will see lot’s of “cowboy’s” who would drive to hell and back if they could, no matter what. I have been asked time and time again. Who makes the call, when it is time for you to shut down in adverse weather conditions? It’s simple, the driver makes the call on all safety issues while out on the road. It is completely left up to you, and how “comfortable” you feel.

I don’t know how many of you, have ever been in a accident because of bad weather. I hope nobody has, but I know better. I have been, and it is not something I ever want to go through again. With winter time upon us, some of you have already been driving in the snow. It is something that comes up usually with little warning, unless of course it is a blizzard or the like. My little story, comes from a accident I had in 2004. It happened on I-77 southbound side just south of WythVille, VA. on what then was a bridge that was under construction over the “New River”.

I was rolling down I-77 south, and was just before WythVille, VA. and it started spitting snow. I didn’t think much of it, at the time. I was a little concerned about going down the mountain into North Carolina, so i asked what the weather looked like towards NC. and the response was “Snowing in Wythville, but it was raining at the top of the mountain clear to Charlotte. As I continued through the tunnel, I hit the other side and now it was snowing harder, and when I got to Wythville, there was about an inch or two on the road.

I was talking, on the phone to the wife, and telling her about the snow, she recommended me stopping, but I assured her it was suppose to clear up before the mountain. I continued on, and just before the ramp for I-81 off of I-77 north, I told the wife I loved her, and would call back when I got signal again, (Thank you sprint). As I started up the little hill before the bridge, it was really snowing almost a white out. I could hear chatter on the CB, still saying it cleared up before the mountain. To late now anyway, I had to continue. As I started down the hill to the bridge, I heard someone yelling on the CB,” WRECK on the BRIDGE” I couldn’t even see the bridge.

I slowed to above a crawl, with my four-wys on. Then as I hit the bridge I heard “Traffic is STOPPED on the bridge, Southbound lanes on the bridge are stopped”! I started braking, and the trailer tried to pass me, so I got on the brake, and off the brake, and on the brake, and off the brake, until I got stopped. I was stopped up against the bridge wall as close as I could get, without hitting it, just about 50 yards from the last vehicle involved in the accident.

BTW, I had a tanker loaded with 7,000 gallons of ACETONE, I didn’t want to be involved in the accident. It would have been bad. The snow let up a little, and a “Yellow Freight” truck yelled for me, and said they got stopped behind me almost top of the hill, but another truck had continued. The “other” truck started yelling he could not stop. I looked in the side mirror and seen him, fighting the truck, which was already jack-knifed heading for me. I thought Holy Shit he is going to hit me, and the direction he was sliding was going to put him in the middle of my tank on the drivers side. This was not good! I thought maybe, just maybe, if I could get rolling enough, maybe I could lesson the blow. Also, to avoid him hitting my tank directly in the side.

I got rolling just before he was to hit me, and it worked! He dead centered my driver’s side tandem’s on the trailer. He hit me, bounced off and headed for the concrete barriers. It scooted my tank to the right, slamming it into the bridge wall. As he slid past me, diesel fuel was flying everywhere, as it had ripped the whole side of his furl tank out. Somehow a four-wheeler had gotten tangled up between us, sitting sideways up under my tank almost to the windshield.

Another four-wheeler ended up under his DOT bumper, I ran and checked on him (the driver of the truck) and he was NOT in the truck! I started looking around to see if he was thrown out. I found out he had run towards the front of the accident to see if anyone was hurt. He may have run, because he had just hit a tanker loaded with a Flammable product too. Anyway, I ran and checked on the two vehicles behind me. The car under my tank, had five teenage girls in it. They were shaken up, and crying, and scared to death obviously. The four-wheeler under his DOT bumper had one lady in it, on her way home from church. But, she was OK, and just shaken up and scared also. Thank GOD, there were no fatalities, as it turned out one person had a cut on a finger, and a child had a bump on the head!

When all was said and done there was Ǽ vehicles involved. I shortly after that quit hauling HAZMAT, as I figured I walked away from that one, and I was NOT going to push my luck. I also from then on am really nervous driving in snow, so I DON’T.

I should have stopped in WythVille, VA. I know the story was long, but the point was if you DO NOT feel comfortable driving in snow, then DON’T! There is NO LOAD worth risking a accident. Call, the dispatch, and tell them the roads are bad, and you feel unsafe and find a place to stop.

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