Man Dies in Alaska Highway Crash
Fort St. John, B.C. – A 24 year old man is dead following a motor vehicle collision this morning at Mile 64 of the Alaska Highway.
Mounties say the crash occurred just north of Fort St. John just after 11 a.m.
“The collision involved two semi logging trucks. One truck, slowing down to make a turn was rear-ended by a second truck. The driver of the second truck succumbed to his injures at the scene,” says Corporal Jodi Shelkie.
“Police believe that visibility and road conditions contributed to the accident.”
The highway is expected to remain closed until 7 p.m this evening.
A detour is available, when travelling north on the highway take the Stoddard Creek Road, then turn left onto the 256 Road which leads back to the highway.
The name of the deceased has not been released.
Comments
The biggest cause of death involving a rig is the rear end collision. Often people think they can draft for fuel mileage behind a big rig… They don’t realize they can be in a blind spot for the driver of the rig (especially around high noon), and those highway trucks can make very fast stops, much better than the average car or truck on ice. A highway truck can weigh 30 times or more that of a pickup and it’s like hitting a brick wall… Truck driver probably didn’t even feel a thing.
The second truck was a logging truck too.
Drafting is still a possibility but I also wonder about fatigue and failing to take distance, speed, conditions, and compromised reflexes into account.
My heart goes out to the family. As a former logger who’s lost friends who died behind the wheel of a B-Train load of logs or an off-road rig, I know how dangerous this job is.
Drafting…..yes that’s why others can’t pass safely one at a time. If I’m not mistaken, trucks should be leaving at least three truck/tractor lengths between one another. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
One and, two and. No different for any vehicle type. The two second rule! Trucks can be hard to pass even when they are alone. Why risk peoples lives just because you gotta get by that truck? There are plenty of safe passing areas on most of our hwy’s.
No different than any vehicle? 100 kmh is 27.7 meters per second. You can stop a loaded chip truck in 54 meters?
Regardless where the fault lies, it’s very sad that a young man loses his life trying to make a living.
Eagleone, please elaborate as to how a big rig can make very fast stops much better than the average cat or truck.
Sorry, Car. We all know cats stop very quickly
Soooo young… Condolences to the family and friends
Vested… not in all cases, but its basic physics when you have 30 tires on the ground with enough weight to cut through things like slush on the road. A good trailer will keep the truck straight, keep it in control, and pull it back in conditions where a four wheeler will hydroplane because it only has four tires on the ground and maybe none have traction. If only a few tires out of 30 have traction that unit can stop well within 200 feet from highway speed (assuming no one is behind it). Rarely do all 30 tires have no traction, but it does happen as well.
The point being if a tractor has to stop quickly on the highway and someone is too close in the blind spot, so the tractor driver doesn’t know they are there… then that gap will close quickly, far quicker than any vehicle with the best brakes can compensate for the lost reaction time. I’ve seen lots of vehicles going side by side with a highway tractor slide though a yellow red light when the highway truck stops without any troubles… put that same vehicle behind the tractor and thats when its safer for the tractor to continue through a yellow.
Its a form of over driving ones sights.. happens all the time in fog, rain, snow, where one has more speed then they can react once something comes into sight. In this case its a rapidly slowing down logging truck.
Left turns off the highway are the worst, and that is why most ‘professional’ drivers will start slowing down well in advance, because often this time of year the signal lights won’t be visible with all the road grim, and or the crap LED lights most units now have that can’t burn off the ice build up. The worst thing any professional driver can do is make rapid stops… its the biggest killer involving highway trucks, and thats why you don’t see it often.
That two second following rule, I don’t put much faith in. I always increase it to at least double that and in poorer weather, I stay ‘way back. I really don’t like adrenalin rushes or panic stops. Had too many.
As I gained experience, I found that panic stops were becoming much less frequent and now I measure my driving by having to make very, very few.
I guess it comes with age, maturity and experience.
Provided all 30 wheels have brakes attached to them. If the logging trucks I observe on a daily basis on the Hart highway are any indication I am not surprised this has happened. I have never seen so many “professional” drivers doing very unprofessional manouvers in amongst vehicles 1/10 their size. I have seen logging trucks racing both empty and loaded side by side on the Hart. That’s what happens when they pump out these class 1 drivers at such a staggering rate these days. What are there? 5 class 1 driver training facilities in PG? So it stands to reason you may, to beat he competition, let a few bad driving habits slide.
WCB should oversee road conditions seeing they are our workplace. Take this same fellow put him in a warehouse with oil on the floor, it is cleaned up to prevent an accident, if an accident occurs there is an investigation and fines. Take this young fellow and put him on the highway in a truck and he’s just more cannon fodder, his fault for going to work I guess.
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