In La Cañada last week, a huge car carrier lost its brakes and crashed through an intersection, squashing cars and passengers, finally halting inside a charming little book store that my wife and I used to frequent. Vehicles crumpled like pop cans, two dead, a dozen injured and three shops destroyed or damaged. Alas, something similar happened last September as a truck descending the Angeles Crest Highway lost its brakes, barreling into a coffee shop parking lot next to the doomed bookstore, mangling seven vehicles. No causalities then, but Cal Trans was notified by La Cañada authorities that these big rigs need slowing. Cal Trans jumped right on it and will, no doubt, cook up something within the next geological epoch.
Our prayers go out to the victims and survivors.
7 comments:
My dad told me that gravel trucks were the most dangerous vehicles on the road. They get paid by the load and so speed down the road in an effort to squeeze in that extra load a day. He said a woman was in an accident with one once, and set out to sue them, and to get them to limit the amount of loads they can deliver in a day. Right before her day in court, she was hit and killed by yet another gravel truck. True story.
In New Zealand, it's logging trucks hauling massive amounts of timber, driven by half-gassed Kiwis.
They take a heavy toll of motorists in little Japanese cars.
One of the stories I got my dad telling on video, yet to be posted, is of when he lost the brakes on his gas tanker going down California Highway 17 while hauling something like 1800 gallons.
It happens. Trucks are heavy, and because they're used so much also, they run out of brakes and tires frequently. There's definitely a reason why there's a "brake check area" at the summit of Altamont Pass between Silicon Valley and I5. Any such area at Angeles Crest?
Val, I think most truckers are paid by the load, so there's no reason gravel haulers should be any different.
As the son of a life-long trucker, I'd have to say the most dangerous vehicles on the road are SUVs ostensibly piloted by people talking on a cel phone, eating breakfast, drinking coffee and reading the morning paper all at the same time, who then decide to pass trucks on the right.
...or, heck, anyone who passes trucks on the right.
I had heard they were using Angeles Crest to get around a brake check.
But can't say with any certainty.
Keeper, I'll have to ask my dad why he thinks gravel trucks are somehow more dangerous than other big rigs...
John, how do the tiny Kiwi birds drive such big trucks? And more imporantly, why are they allowed to!? New Zealand is a nutty place...
Aye aye aye, I was wondering how close you were to this - I think what's infuriating to me is that there IS a runaway truck ramp but Caltran took down the signs. Really?
It's not the birds, Valerie; it's the fruit. Birds, driving trucks? Now that's just silly!
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