Heck Of A Ride!

[Subdeacon Joe]

Truckee, CA

"http://fox40.com/2017/01/12/chp-officers-escort-drifting-fedex-on-snowy-i-80/"

 

NEVADA COUNTY — Video posted by the California Highway Patrol office in Truckee shows a FedEx truck drifting along a snow-dusted Interstate 80 Thursday.

The video was shared more than 216,000 times in just eight hours, and got more than 6 million views.

In a comment on the video, the CHP explains what happened:

“OK the rumor mill is spinning on this video, and the theories have been great. So the Story, the driver had jackknifed at the top of the grade. When the driver had lost it at the top of the hill, he had broke the air lines to his rear trailer. This caused the brakes on the rear trailer to lock up. We arrived on scene and were informed the tow was going to be extended. So we asked the driver if he could get himself going and we would give him space to get down to the next open shoulder on the Interstate. 20 minutes later he was off the highway and we were open with flowing traffic.”

 

video here:

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article126093064.html

 

 

 

[Kulshan 20262]

Good judgement call and a good job all around. I would have caged the brakes so the wheels would turn. Each brake "can" has a bolt on the side that can be removed and inserted into the spring brake chamber and drawn up to compress the spring and release the brake.

[Noz]

The driver should get a nice bonus check and a clean pair of pants

[Sedalia Dave]

Good judgement call and a good job all around. I would have caged the brakes so the wheels would turn. Each brake "can" has a bolt on the side that can be removed and inserted into the spring brake chamber and drawn up to compress the spring and release the brake.

+10

 

Bet those rear trailer tires had one heck of a flat spot. Driver is really lucky he/she didn't blow a tire.

[Subdeacon Joe]

+10

 

Bet those rear trailer tires had one heck of a flat spot. Driver is really lucky he/she didn't blow a tire.

 

 

Riding on ice. I doubt that there was a lot of wear on them

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

I want to know what happened to the air-brake lines to begin with.

Did they break because they weren't drain'n water out and froze or what?

I too want to know why the brakes weren't caged. It's something every driver has to know.

I held a class 1 CDL for almost 30yrs. There're lots of questions unanswered here.

Like-not see'n any tire chains.......

OLG

[The Shoer 27979]

Lumpy I was driving donner the same time frame, thats where this happened between state line and truckee going west bound. There was no caging brakes and 80 was opened and closed 6 times I knew of and one of them was for 36 hours rough week up here last week

And as far as chains it was a mix of max. to min. to no chains and any where state line to gold run (about 120 miles) there was 4+ feet of snow on donner and most of it was from Tues storm

Edited January 14, 2017 by The Shoer 27979

[Subdeacon Joe]

I want to know what happened to the air-brake lines to begin with.

Did they break because they weren't drain'n water out and froze or what?

I too want to know why the brakes weren't caged. It's something every driver has to know.

I held a class 1 CDL for almost 30yrs. There're lots of questions unanswered here.

Like-not see'n any tire chains.......

OLG

 

 

From the CHP " the driver had jackknifed at the top of the grade. When the driver had lost it at the top of the hill, he had broke the air lines to his rear trailer. "

 

From the control of the tractor, I would say he had it chained. If he had managed to straighten up and get going again after jackknifing, and locking up the brakes on the trailer, he might not have had any chance to cage the brakes.

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

If he JK'd at the top of the hill. Then I would say he wasn't chain'd up. Hard to tell in the vid.

Also-I was taught to chain one outboard if not both sides of the rear trailer when on ice. I rec'd my first CDL in Colorado and this was SOP for winter over the mtns.

OLG