Every six weeks I get the "on call" phone. Last week was my turn in the barrel. On call runs from 0800 Friday to 0800 the following Friday. My job is to assist local law enforcement with traffic control, spill control, and make sure our state right or way is protected. It was quiet all week, that is until 0400 Last Friday morning. It had been raining all night and I was pleasantly surprised that the phone hadn't gone off before I got off work. The call came in and I was informed by the biggest of our local Police Dept's that there was a jack knifed 18 wheeler, massive guardrail damage, blocking roadway, AND a fuel spill. I got up and dressed, drove 12 miles to get my work truck and headed off another 6 miles to the wreck.
Got there and discovered it wasn't in "my" area of responsibility but decided to go ahead and work it anyway as it would have taken another hour for the right guy to come out.
It was a good one if you want to classify to that way. Not nearly as bad as some I've worked that involved multiple fatalities. Nobody was hurt in this mess.
This is what I found upon arrival.
Cops had two of three lanes of IH-35W open and the truck wasn't blocking any lanes of that road. He ended up blocking an exit ramp. I told the boys in blue to open the third lane as traffic was stacking badly and getting worse as prime drive time rush hour was upon us. One of the "big hooks" ( wrecker ) showed up and we got him positioned to try and straighten it out and drag it down the ramp. I didn't think he could do it because the trailer was broken and figured the whole mess would end up on the ground. The wrecker driver thought the same after he looked at this view when he got up there to it.
He tugged on it a bit and then it started dumping more fuel. I called in a sand truck and we put out 5 or 6 yards of sand. Then we waited on the haz-mat guys to come pump the tanks.
They got that done about 0900. Then they dragged the mess down the ramp and spent most of the day off loading 42K lbs of tile and re-loading it onto another trailer.
The driver was a youngster compared to me. I drove trucks for 30 years. He was telling anybody who would listen the biggest line of baloney I'd heard in a long time most of it having to with why it wasn't his fault. I listened for few minutes and proceeded to put that boy in his place. I told him in my time of trucking that I had worn more rubber off of windshield wiper blades than he had worn off of drive tires and that in 30 years and more than 3 million miles I NEVER made one look like his mess. He stuttered and stammered and I went on to tell him that he either went to sleep or he had the cruise control on IN THE RAIN which is a NO-NO especially with the horse power that trucks make nowadays. HE stuttered and stammered a bit and then I thanked him for getting my grouchy old *** out of a nice warm bed to come play in the rain with the likes of him and that I hoped he enjoyed his bus ride home.
Poor kid.
I left it with the guys whose section it was to handle the rest of it at 0930 and went on to my regularly scheduled duties.
Here's of few pics of some other memorable messes that I've been involved in helping to clean up.
2010 SWIFT TRANSPORTATION "engine toss" winner of the year.
That's his engine in street.
Old No 88 lost his engine too.
THis one was really bad. a cement mixer truck ran completely over this car. One fatality.
then he went on to hit a tanker and burn both rigs to the ground.
Fortunately the tanker was hauling water. The mixer driver was found to have been texting on cell phone and was charged with vehicular manslaughter.
This was McRyan Trucking's stunt driver of the year award for 2011. Look at the tracks where he came off the ramp above.
Got there and discovered it wasn't in "my" area of responsibility but decided to go ahead and work it anyway as it would have taken another hour for the right guy to come out.
It was a good one if you want to classify to that way. Not nearly as bad as some I've worked that involved multiple fatalities. Nobody was hurt in this mess.
This is what I found upon arrival.
Cops had two of three lanes of IH-35W open and the truck wasn't blocking any lanes of that road. He ended up blocking an exit ramp. I told the boys in blue to open the third lane as traffic was stacking badly and getting worse as prime drive time rush hour was upon us. One of the "big hooks" ( wrecker ) showed up and we got him positioned to try and straighten it out and drag it down the ramp. I didn't think he could do it because the trailer was broken and figured the whole mess would end up on the ground. The wrecker driver thought the same after he looked at this view when he got up there to it.
He tugged on it a bit and then it started dumping more fuel. I called in a sand truck and we put out 5 or 6 yards of sand. Then we waited on the haz-mat guys to come pump the tanks.
They got that done about 0900. Then they dragged the mess down the ramp and spent most of the day off loading 42K lbs of tile and re-loading it onto another trailer.
The driver was a youngster compared to me. I drove trucks for 30 years. He was telling anybody who would listen the biggest line of baloney I'd heard in a long time most of it having to with why it wasn't his fault. I listened for few minutes and proceeded to put that boy in his place. I told him in my time of trucking that I had worn more rubber off of windshield wiper blades than he had worn off of drive tires and that in 30 years and more than 3 million miles I NEVER made one look like his mess. He stuttered and stammered and I went on to tell him that he either went to sleep or he had the cruise control on IN THE RAIN which is a NO-NO especially with the horse power that trucks make nowadays. HE stuttered and stammered a bit and then I thanked him for getting my grouchy old *** out of a nice warm bed to come play in the rain with the likes of him and that I hoped he enjoyed his bus ride home.
Poor kid.
I left it with the guys whose section it was to handle the rest of it at 0930 and went on to my regularly scheduled duties.
Here's of few pics of some other memorable messes that I've been involved in helping to clean up.
2010 SWIFT TRANSPORTATION "engine toss" winner of the year.
That's his engine in street.
Old No 88 lost his engine too.
THis one was really bad. a cement mixer truck ran completely over this car. One fatality.
then he went on to hit a tanker and burn both rigs to the ground.
Fortunately the tanker was hauling water. The mixer driver was found to have been texting on cell phone and was charged with vehicular manslaughter.
This was McRyan Trucking's stunt driver of the year award for 2011. Look at the tracks where he came off the ramp above.
