This blog was set up to give truck drivers a place to find out news about their industry. Weather related news, and accidents will also be found here.
A Tennessee State Trooper stopped one truck last weekend for exceeding the speed limit. He later found cocaine in the driver’s trailer and learned the driver had been deported to Mexico 10 years ago after previous drug arrests.
read more | digg story
Labels: truck driver Industry
A new payment schedule is in place in relation to a federal class action that pitted drivers against Arctic Express Inc. The case involved the motor carrier’s failure to return escrow money to truckers.
read more | digg story
Labels: truck driver Industry
Drive across Virginia with an outsized rubber replica of testicles dangling from your trailer hitch and you face a fine under a bill before the General Assembly.
read more | digg story
Labels: truck driver Industry
The driver of an 18-wheeler whose tires came off and hit a car, killing the driver, will not be charged in the wreck, police said. The wreck happened Thursday at 9:30 p.m. near the Interstate 35 bridge over Loop 340 in Bellmead.
Two tires came off the southbound 18-wheeler, crossed a concrete barrier and struck a Honda Accord, killing Luke Hausmann, 23, of Atchison, Kan.
Hausmann’s three siblings, Anna, 20; Julia, 16; and Ethan, 20, also were injured in the crash. All three have since been released from Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, a nursing supervisor said.
The New Orleans-based truck driver wasn’t charged in the case, and the cause of the tires falling off was deemed a mechanical failure, said Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Cliff Federwisch.Source
One person was killed after an accident on Route 52 near Roderfield in McDowell County. Witnesses say it involved a tractor trailer and another vehicle.
The driver of the smaller vehicle was killed at the scene.
The driver of the truck was taken to Welch Emergency Hospital.
It happened around 2 p.m. Tuesday.
Police are investigating to figure out what led to the accident. Source
A trooper with the Tennessee Highway Patrol narrowly misses being hit by an 18 wheeler, but the semi did take off part of the trooper's car door, and it was all caught on tape. The video shows the 18 wheeler slamming into Trooper Chuck Melhorn's patrol car. It also shows glass, shattering from his car door. He was inches away from being hit.
Three days later, we are with the trooper as he sees his smashed cruiser for the first time since the accident. Trooper Melhorn says, "It was close that's for sure. It was close."
Melhorn tells us he had stopped to help a driver who was towing an old car. He says as a trooper, he knows to be cautious for drivers speeding by. On the video you can see Melhorn as looks both ways down the interstate to make sure cars are yielding.
But just as Melhorn walks back to his car and opens the door, the truck smashes into it.
Melhorn radios dispatchers saying, "I've just been struck on the interstate by an 18 wheeler. I'm okay, but he pulled my driver's side door off."
Legally the truck driver should have yielded to the trooper's car. It's called the Move Over Law. It was enacted after a Tennessee Trooper died in a similar situation.
Cpt. Cheryl Sanders with Tennessee Highway Patrol says, "This is a classic example of why we have the law, what can happen."
Drivers are supposed to yield for all stopped emergency personnel. But as our cameras found on I-24, there are cars who fail to follow the law.
Melhorn says, "If they can't move over to the left hand lane, at least slow down a little bit and just be aware."
The trooper says he feels he's been given a second chance at life. "Oh yes I do believe so, yes."
Tennessee investigators are looking for the 18 wheeler and its driver. It is a white Western Express truck with a dark cab. If you've seen it, contact authorities. Source and Video
The wife of U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden was involved in a traffic accident on Interstate 95 on Tuesday, but no serious injuries were reported, authorities said. According to Delaware State Police, Jill Tracy Biden was driving a 2001 BMW southbound in the left lane when a tractor-trailer in the center lane moved into her lane and struck her vehicle.
Biden was taken to Christiana Hospital, where she was treated for minor injuries and released.
Alexander Snyder-Mackler, a spokesman for the senator, said he could not comment on family matters.
The driver of the tractor-trailer, Duane Vanderbosh of Perryville, Md., was not injured. He was cited for careless driving.
Both drivers were wearing their seatbelts.
The accident happened about 9:45 a.m. just south of the Route 141 junction.
In December 1972, Biden's first wife, Neilia, and the couple's 18-month-old daughter, Naomi, were killed when the family's station wagon was hit by a tractor-trailer at an intersection. The accident, which left his sons Beau and Hunter seriously injured, happened just five weeks after Biden, then 29, was elected to the Senate.Source
A first-year special education teacher at Knapp Elemen-tary School was killed on her way to school Monday morning on an ice-covered off-ramp connecting U.S. 12 and Interstate 94 in Berrien County, Mich. Kristen Lyn Heimbach, 27, Three Oaks, died when her car crossed into the path of a tractor-trailer at 8:30 a.m. in New Buffalo Township, according to Michigan State Police. Reports said Heimbach apparently lost control of her car on the slick roadway and slid into the path of a tractor-trailer, which hit her car and pinned it against a guardrail.
Police said Heimbach was trapped inside her car, and when a Michigan State Police Motor Carrier officer came across the accident, Heimbach was unresponsive. The Berrien County medical examiner pronounced her dead at the scene.
Although Heimbach had been with Michigan City Area Schools only since August, she had made a tremendous impact, said Joan McCormick, director of special education for MCAS.
"When I met Kristen, I knew immediately I wanted her in Michigan City," said McCormick. "She entered the school system with energy. She was very bright, very knowledgeable and put a sparkle on our department." Heimbach, who previously taught computers to sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders at St. Mary of Lake Catholic School in New Buffalo, Mich., was also a volunteer swimming coach for Special Olympics and was due to graduate with a master's degree in special education from Indiana University-South Bend in the spring. She received her undergraduate degree from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.
The Rev. Jim Morris of St. Mary of the Lake parish in New Buffalo said Heimbach taught at the school for two years. "The kids here are all torn up over this," Morris said. "Before the basketball game tonight, one of the players asked for a moment of silence for her."
Morris said Heimbach connected with her students and it wasn't uncommon for them to keep in touch with her. "Teachers like her are not easy to find," he said
Knapp Elementary School Principal Tim Glidden said Heimbach was "an exciting young teacher.
"She was always smiling, she was always a positive person, she was always professional," Glidden said Monday evening. "She was one of those people who was born to be a teacher. She had a great way with students."
Pyllis Stark, president of the Michigan City Education Association, said, "Our thoughts are with her family. The energy, the spark, the enthusiasm she brought to work will be missed. It's not only a loss for her family, but it's a loss to our profession."
McCormick described Heimbach as "very bright" and someone who loved to teach special education.
Betsy Kohn, spokeswoman for MCAS, said, "She was a rare individual who walks in and makes a difference. She was a young, shining star who blessed us when she landed in our district. Our sympathies go out to her family."
Kohn said MCAS will have counselors available for both teachers and students today.
Heimbach's parents, Ed and Bev Heimbach, and her younger brother, Jace, live in Union Pier, Mich. Funeral arrangements have not been announced.
A two-truck crash on Interstate 81 early this morning closed the northbound lanes for hours and destroyed both the trailers and one of the cabs. The accident occurred at 1:39 a.m. near mile marker 2, just north of State Line, and the two northbound lanes were not expected to be reopened until around noon.
Joe Kiggans, 68, a company driver for Smithway Motor Xpress, Inc., based in Fort Dodge, Iowa, was heading north from Kingsport, Tenn. to Chambersburg when his rig was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer owned by Morristown Drivers Services Inc., Morristown, Tenn. The cab of that rig burst into flames, but the unidentified driver escaped with minor injuries, police said.
*
Kiggans' trailer was hauling reams of office paper, while the other truck was hauling 44,000 pounds of jar lids packed in cardboard boxes.
The impact pushed Kiggans' truck up the interstate for nearly a quarter of a mile. Debris from both trucks was spread for several hundred feet across both northbound lanes of I-81.
Kiggans did not seek medical treatment at the scene but said his ribs hurt and he believed he had cracked one or two of them. “I'm going to wait until I get home to see my doctor,” he said.
The unidentified driver was taken to Chambersburg hospital with minor injuries.
Fire in cab
It took fire crews nearly three hours to bring the fire in the cab under control. Fire crews were on the scene until 7 a.m., and the cab was still smoldering at 8.
“We were told a truck had flipped over, but when we got there, they were both upright and both on fire,” Rescue Hose Capt. Mike Luger said. “The striking vehicle burned completely. A small section of the front truck burned a little, but we had that under control within five to 10 minutes,” he added.
Firefighters had to make several cuts in the sides of the trucks to ventilate them and gain access to the loads.
Dave's Truck Repair of Chambersburg and Pennsylvania State Department of Transportation road crews helped rescue personnel unload the trucks.
Both were still being unloaded this morning, and Kiggans said he thinks most of his load is salvageable.
PennDOT crews were called out at 3 a.m. for clean-up and to handle the highway closure. Pennsylvania State Police also responded, and the cause of the accident is under investigation. The highway was slippery from the night's rainfall, but it is unclear whether that was a factor in the accident.
Detour
Southbound traffic on I-81 was proceeding normally but northbound traffic was being detoured onto U.S. 11 at the State Line exit. Fire police were on scene directing traffic, but cars and trucks were backed up for nearly two miles, well into Maryland.
PennDOT crews at the scene said at 8 a.m. that the road would be closed for at least another three hours.
Greencastle's Rescue Hose Co. was first on the scene and was assisted by units from Maugansville, Long Meadow and Marion.
A series of accidents and smokey conditions have delayed traffic in both Brevard County and Polk County Tuesday morning. In Brevard County, one person is dead in a five-car pileup in Rockledge. The accident has closed Interstate 95 north of Fiske Boulevard.
Florida Highway patrol said five cars were involved in three separate accidents around a construction zone.
News 13 has learned that a deputy was involved in the crash, but he was not injured.
Truck Runs Into Work Vehicle
Also in Brevard County, the Florida Highway Patrol is finishing up working on an accident on I-95 at mile marker 208.
FHP said a tractor-trailer was driving on I-95 around midnight when it rammed into a construction vehicle that was laying down road glue. Road glue is used to fasten down reflectors on the interstate.
Deputies said the driver was travelling about 70 mph and he did not see signs instructing motorists to change lanes to make room for the road work.
The driver of the semi was airlifted Holmes Regional Medical Center. He is in critical condition.
The driver of the work vehicle was not as seriously injured and was sent to Wuesthoff Medical Center. However, he was trapped inside his vehicle for about 45 minutes. Trooper said part of the reason he wasn't as seriously injured was because there is a crash barrier on the back of the work vehicle.
Both southbound lanes of I-95 are back open at this point. Only one northbound lane is open near this second crash.
U.S. 1 can be used as an alternative.
I-4 Closed In Polk County
In Polk County, authorities are using an abundance of caution and closing Interstate 4 between U.S. 27 and County Road 557 because of smoke in the area.
Traffic is being rerouted.
That stretch of the interstate is the same place where a deadly 70-car pileup took place week that killed four people. Smoke and fog contributed to that accident and there was some criticism that authorities did not act quickly enough to close the interstate because of dangerous conditions.Source
