One Thing Leads to Another, in This Case Accidents
Semi-trailer blocks one lane of Highway 97 south Saturday morning. Photos 250News
Prince George, B.C. – Traffic along Highway 97 south was backed up for a considerable distance and time this morning in the wake of a pair of motor vehicle accidents.
The initial incident involved a semi-trailer unit. The semi went off the highway and into the ditch, leaving the trailer on the road blocking one lane.
Traffic began backing up in both directions and during the course of the road blockage there was a collision between two vehicles.
RCMP and Buckhorn Volunteer Fire Department at second accident site
It is not believed anyone was seriously hurt in either accident but traffic remained tied up for quite some time while police investigated what had transpired.
Comments
Good to here no one was hurt. Seems to be a lot of incidences lately involving our professional drivers?
If there was a mechanical issue at least the driver managed to head for the ditch instead of ending up in the oncoming lane on this poor 2-lane excuse of an only north south connection! It could have been a lot worse! Cariboo Connector, how is it coming along?
Seems to be a lot of single vehicle / single driver accidents lately in optimal conditions in broad daylight.
Professional drivers and others.
Why?
I suggest they are texting / reading emails / fiddling with the itunes to change playlists / checking a post on Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter or Facebook because they heard their phones beep on the seat next to them. See it all the time.
Why did that nurse drive off the road down that embankment? Don’t burn me for this, but has she admitted how she found herself sailing off the highway? Have the accident details emerged ie: were their any skidmarks? If absolutely none, hmmmmm…
There have been a few fatalities lately of single vehicle accidents on highways. We’ll never know why for most.
However in one case I DO know it was obvious texting on a curve that killed the kid. That came about as a result of investigation by the RCMP.
Just last week I barely dodged a pickup with a camper heading north on Hwy 97 toward me near Hixon. He crossed the center line, realized it while halfway in my lane, and almost dumped the truck on its side swerving back into his lane. Camper was flopping back and forth in the bed of his truck. As he passed me what did I see him holding up with his left hand? An iPhone.
I drive the north south route frequently. Most truckers are going over the 100kph speed limit and a significant number are travelling more than 110kph.
On top of that, if there are any that are “stuck” behind a slow moving truck, they will be the first ones to pull out to pass when there is a dedicated passing lane.
On the freeways in the northwest US, the typical speed limit is 70MPH (113kph) with trucks down to 60MPH (96.5kph). There are no reduced speed limits for trucks on HWY 1 from Hope to Vancouver or on 4 lane sections of 97 south. There are a significant number that travel at 120kph from Hope westwards.
With a few exceptions, they are generally driving by the clock and for long hours per day.
Does anyone know the stats for truck incidents/1,000km versus car incidents?
The frustration I have, and probably a lot of others as well, is, we hear of the motor vehicle incidents, but rarely the cause. I know traffic analysts have to take time to investigate, but it sure would be helpful if the cause was made public at a later date.
USA statistics of rates of fatalities per 100 million miles travelled
Passenger vehicles – 1975 = 3.25 : 2012 = 1.09
Large Truck – 1975 = 5.51 : 2012 = 1.46
Source document = fmcsa.dot.gov/sites/fmcsa.dot.gov/files/docs/Large-Truck-Bus-Crash-Facts-2012.pdf
Of course, because of the substantial difference in the weight and construction of the vehicles the risk of an occupant of a passenger vehicle getting killed when colliding with a large truck are far greater than the reverse.
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The above source document has information about recorded causes for both single vehicle and multi-vehicle crashes.
For single crashes of Large Trucks, here are the high percentage occurrences for driver related factors
No driver related factors recorded 43.5%
Speeding 13.1%
Distraction 12.0% (cell, lost in thought, eating, etc)
Impairment 10.4% (fatigue, alcohol, illness)
Overcorrecting 8.6%
Careless driving 6.4%
Vision obscured 4.6% (weather, roadway design, vehicles, etc)
Failure to keep in proper lane 4.2%
Gee, I just realized speeding is the top one. Speeding by professional truck drivers. Guess the observations I made in a previous post are not all that wrong after all.
Gopg I’m going to point out a few things that you should take to heart as it seems you give off a vibe all truckers are beneath you.
“If there are any that are “stuck” behind a slow moving truck, they will be the first ones to pull out to pass when there is a dedicated passing lane.”
Do they not have the same right to pass as anyone? Also they see a lot of drivers who get an opportunity to pass but fail to do so, being in a truck and BC there are very limited places to pass so they are taken full advantage of. Camping season often is the worst due to the high volume of overloaded rvs and trailers who do 80kmh(often in city limits and on highway) and never consider the 140000 lb truck can’t just whip around them.
Of course there are bad drivers in trucks, there are a lot of trucks. Also your accident stats per car / per truck should probably be looked at differently as most trucks(in Canada) are on the road either 14hours(single driver) or 24hours(team drivers) so they will have higher Stats just by being exposed more.
That said purolator, Loomis, dhl are just a few overnights that are constantly speeding(generally 105+) and iirc that blue Kenny hit the ditch 2 winters ago south of quesnel.
Good rule of thumb for driving is pick your speed and if someone catches up to you let them pass and you shouldn’t see them again(except for rv’ers, they always pass and slow down)
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