:whistle: GUILTY HERE!
Deadliest Catch…guilty!
Ice Road Truckers…guilty!
Dirtiest Jobs…guilty!
I love them all…and you are correcto…they are great to watch whilst knitting! :knitting:
Anyone wonder how Hugh will get those two trucks back home? He has his, plus the two from the guys who no longer work for him… :shrug:
Those guys are sissies. You want real danger? Drive a big rig through the Chicago area at 5:15 PM. :gah:
I had never ever seen or known about these ice road truckers and opened the link last night and got sucked in and watched several of them…wow!! Great viewing…not a job I would like to have… I’d be scared as. When you see little shots of trucks going in, I find my heart clutching and hoping the driver is ok!
Had to laugh Mason 
Is it worse for the truckers in a city or for someone like me in a tiny car next to them in inadequately thin lanes. When I have one either side I imagine being crushed like a can. I actually hunch my shoulders in to try and be smaller LOL Actually, I would take a truck driver here any day compared to a bus…lord the buses are scary to drive next to.
Hi!
I guess y’all heard about the Puget Sound area recently?
Talk about danger. Big Rigs are losing their wheels/tires on the freeway right and left! A fatal accident occurred near my stretch of I-5…the northbound lanes BIG RIG lost a (set?) of tires…which rolled over to the cement median divider…it popped up like a fly ball…and arched over into the southbound lanes…and crushed a mini-van FLAT on the front passenger side. The passenger was killed at once.
A few weeks later, two additional BIG RIGS had tires fall off on the freeway! No fatalities, thank the Lord.
What is up with these TIRES???
I will add this note…the BIG RIG that killed the front passenger in the mini-van…that company has had other incidents with tires falling off on the road!
Anyway, it makes me more than nervous now…anytime a BIG RIG drives by me, in either direction. :pout:
There are very few times that a rig will lose it’s wheels that the driver can’t be directly faulted. Part of our job is to inspect the rig before, during, and after each trip to ensure it’s safe to drive.
There are sometimes mechanical failures that can cause it that the driver can’t know about, but more often than not it’s caused by loose lug nuts and that’s one thing the driver is required to inspect.
While the vast majority of the drivers out there are very safety minded professionals, we do have a lot of rookies out here these days. I would be willing to bet that the incidents were with trucking companies known to hire rookies fresh out of school.
Susan; keep this in mind. According to national figures more than 75% of accidents that involve a big rig and a “four wheeler” are caused by the “four wheeler”. Of the remaining 25%, more than half of those are attributed to weather/road conditions.
You’re far safer next to those big rigs than that Volkswagen with the driver yapping on the cell phone.
Hi… I hadn’t heard about that. A few months ago I was behind a truck driver on a long country road but chose not to go round him when it came to double lane sections because on most of the road he was driving fast and would have been sitting on my bumper. So, I slipped in behind it…left some distance of course and just relaxed. Suddenly on one stretch all this black tyre material flew around the sides of the truck and around me…the truck veered but was ok. In this case a caravan in front popped two tyres. I was glad I had been behind the truck!
If a LOT of tyre incidents are occurring you have to question why. Is it wrongly inflated tyres? Is it tyres with inadequate tread that should have been replaced but people are holding off the cost? Is it bad conditions and markedly changing weather temps? Is it bad driving? Combination of the above? I have to think so although I think poor tread may be a particular issue.
What amazed me with the ice road guys was that they didn’t have to drive with special tyres as such. Like, they have good tread etc but unlike snow conditions where you may need chains they just sort of cruised on ordinary tyres. I was surprised to see no slide outs. I had never thought of the waves being created by speeding however and I admit that was a real education for me.
We’ve had some major problems here with people throwing rocks from overpass bridges onto roadways and cars. People have been killed and recently a young lady was very seriously hurt after the rock smashed through the window, took off part of her skull and grazed her brain.
Will people never learn about behaviour and equation of risk to others… sigh.
Mason. I understand where you’re coming from. I have had very little issue with truck drivers here as such; particularly since the govt cracked down on companies pushing drivers to do ridiculous distances in limited times. Now they are basically black boxed and really can’t do that.
If I am in two lanes, next to a truck and coming towards a roundabout I naturally back off and allow him or her the room to manoeuvre (can’t spell today) around. A truck needs both lanes. Most drivers do this but I have seen one or three car drivers totally ignorant about this and about the stopping distance a truck requires e.g. don’t expect to suddenly pull in front of a truck coming towards a light that might change to red and expect the driver to stop before hitting you!
We’ve had problems here with B-doubles - a LOT of accidents in certain sections and in these cases its mainly been the trucks and not cars that have created the carnage BUT…BUT…its road conditions. Australia has really quite poor roads in many areas for trucks. Our better roads are inland but of course companies are often reluctant to use them. We are getting a lot of highway upgrades but I’m finding whilst those roads are good in the dry…in the wet I see more aqua planing than ever before…the camber seems poor for run off.
Sorry, I was speaking about here in the States. I really can’t speak to trucking related accidents in Oz, but I would expect it to be similar as I know a few Aussie drivers who have moved here and they are very safe drivers even if they are forced to use the “wrong” side of the road 
.
Honestly, your kind of driver is rare here. Most are very wreckless and dangerous around big rigs and are a hazard to public safety in general. Most are too impatient and never give their own safety or that of others a first thought let alone a second one. I see it every single day, often with bloody results.
Nods. I think coming from the country you learn to be tolerant and you learn that road safety is road safety for all - being mindful of needs and conditions for different vehicles and so on. I’ve noticed in the city some drivers not stopping to allow a truck to cross lanes etc…but enough doing it and receiving waves of thanks etc…for the practice to hopefully be encouraged. I’ve had drivers put hands out of cabins and give me or others a big thumbs up - and that’s always a good feeling
I agree that its the drivers issue to regular check the rig and all elements are tight and well maintained.
Here it’s the law.
It is here too…but as we know…not everyone follows the law and some people, simply on the basis of shortsightedness with money, will try and cut corners.
I was fascinated by the IRT issues of the metals crystallising and shattering etc. Forgive my ignorance but how come petrol/diesel doesn’t ice form? I know its in tanks etc but it is kept slightly warm somehow? I mean, I know anti-freeze products can be used elsewhere in mechanics but I’ve never heard that applied to fuels.
Actually diesel gels at low temps. They add stuff to prevent that from happening and Detroit engines actually circulate the fuel to warm it as an additional prevention.
Mason- quick question…
I am one of those nerds who call the 1-800 #- to compliment the driver… does the driver really ever hear about the positives?
It depends on the company. Some actually reward the driver with cash, others just never mention it at all.
But I can assure you that if you call to complain the driver will ALWAYS here about that. :gah:
I was wondering what these guys (from Ice Road Truckers) do when they’re not driving on the ice road for the rest of the year. Their employers just let them take off 2+ months? That must be a nice arrangement.
The cold doesn’t bother my DH and I at all so if we didn’t have a 1 year old at home that might be a nice trip to do together.
My dad is a school bus driver and he loves driving in the city. He has no problems changing lanes - people tend to get out of his way quickly!
My impression is that they either own their own trucks and contract for the work, or, they subcontract. One young man was heard to say in a vid that he wishes he had flown home and not done the trip. They would simply work south on other runs in the offseason. I wouldn’t do that run. I am not confident or healthy enough and if a driver did have some form of mechanical failure (in the face of good maintenance or a crash because some other driver did the wrong thing) I would be a liability.
If I were the waiting-at-home wife of ICE ROAD TRUCKERS, or ALASKA CRAB FISHERMEN…I don’t think I could eat or sleep the entire time. Both are terribly dangerous jobs.
But, wives of cops, firemen, and Iraq soldiers…all these also have husbands that are in harm’s way 24/7.
Hat’s off to our waiting mothers and wives.
The mate in my life says to also try Atlanta at 5 p.m. or CA 60-Pomona Freeway anytime of the day. :oo: Any of them sound bad to me. Give me small town Iowa farm roads anytime! :woohoo: