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A few days ago, I wrote a post about an amusing situation that happened to me while driving. In the comments, we began talking about driving trucks, and I mentioned some tragedies I have seen. I got to thinking I can't leave it there, on such a sour note, so the following is my favorite story to tell about my days as a truck driver.
Driving for Uber and Lyft, I am frequently asked what my best Uber / Lyft story is.
I have to tell my passengers that, while I’ve had some interesting things happen, the best was when I was driving semi. My personal favorite was when I was driving south on I-5, between Redding CA, and Lake Shasta. The freeway passes through a canyon there, and the weather inside has no bearing on what happens on either end.
I was travelling around 65 MPH, when a little sports car came whipping around me, like I was standing still. He had to be moving at around 85 or 90 MPH, and as he switched lanes (rather swiftly) in front of me, we moved out of the canyon. In Redding, the rain was pouring down, hard, and water was standing on the road. Naturally, he hydroplaned. He spun 3 complete 360s, right in front of my tractor, at speed. It is an interesting experience looking at someone’s face travelling in reverse at 80 MPH, and I felt rather sorry for the driver. I strongly suspect that all he saw in those few seconds was Peterbilt… Peterbilt… Peterbilt…
Somehow, through the grace of God, he got his car straightened out, and going the right direction. He did, however, take the next exit, and I am pretty certain he had to change his drawers. To be honest, I almost had to stop for a shower myself. Had he gained traction while sideways, it would have been all over, and that little car would not have made a nice hood ornament on my Pete.
Comments
Bridges
Bridges and black ice are not a good combination either and I found out the hard way.
At that time I was working the 3 to 11 shift and was headed home after work. Things had been doing good
until I started across one of the bridges on the interstate. I started to skid and corrected but ended up over
correcting going into fishtailing. Caught traction at end of bridge and flipped the SUV that I was driving on
its side. Sadly, enough damage that it was totaled. I remember the incident but can't remember the year
it happened.
Black ice
Black ice is a treacherous thing. I've driven one kind of truck or another most of my working life. Early in my carrier I was working for a precast company delivering their product in Oregon. It was my habit to load the truck the night before and leave in the wee hours of the day to make my deliveries. The story I'm recalling happen in late fall where the daytime temps in the Columbia Gorge hover in the mid fifties. I was driving a flat bed straight truck with a five and a four (main box and brownie) Coming back empty in the early after noon in clear weather, sunny skies, but chilly out on what is now I84 (then it was I80n). I was driving about 55 when a Lincoln Continental passed me just as we entered a dip in the road. Near the bottom of the dip, he did a 180 and slammed into the guard rail. When I saw that, I took my foot off the throttle. That was a mistake. The rear tires broke loose and I started into a spin, albeit in slow motion. I could see that if I let it continue, I'd have ended up sandwiching him between me and the guard rail. I steered into the slide and got back on the power. The truck passed through the dip at about a 45 degree angle and righted itself back on the top at the other side. The look on the guys face as he watched me go by him was sheer terror.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
The first truck I drove was a
The first truck I drove was a two stick 4 and 4 (4x4) Wouldn't you know it, it had different shift patterns on each stick, which made it even more difficult. The interesting thing, was you had 4 speeds in reverse. You did NOT want to get it into overdrive, however. LOL.
My Peterbilt was a 10 speed, single stick with a splitter. That was plenty for me, although I've driven 13 speeds before as well. The 10 speed was plenty of gears for 105,500 lbs as well. I drove that truck, pretty near 600,000 miles. I bought it used, and watched the odometer turn over to 1,000,000 miles. LOL. Was kinda cool.
I started pulling heavy haul with that truck, and was climbing a 15% grade on the Salmo Creston, in Canada, and missed a gear. I came to a complete stop on the hill, and the best I could do was go from granny low to 2nd the rest of the hill. How embarrassing. Was about a year later that I started teaching how to pull doubles. LOL.
I'm guessing that your incident occurred around Cascade Locks? I have seen more ice on that stretch of highway than any other. Had to stop and put chains on there once, and the moment I got out of the truck, if I hadn't been holding on, I would have skated to the next truck down the hill. LOL
Hugs!
Rosemary