Howdy All;
While driving fro a living I hauled Hazwaste, not as nasty as it sounds, but
you still need to be "on your toes".
I had a load, 47 pounds of extremely LOW level radioactive liquid to be
used to calibrate measuring instruments (or so I was told). It was packed in
one of those Yellow fiberglass foam filled boxes with cutouts for 2 each 1 (one),
Liter beakers each 1/2 full, strapped to a small pallet and secured to the floor
dead-center in the trailer.
I had gone from the SW corner of Ohio to the SE corner of WY without an incident
and was driving West on I-80 about 30 West of Laramie, I turned on the radio (FM),
and there was a High wind warning (
). I started to look for a place to exit
to wait the winds out. Your get told many times not to pull over and
park on the shoulders so I was looking for an exit. topped a hill and at the
bottom was an exit (yea!!!), the shoulders on both the on and off ramps
were full of trucks that had gotten there first so, as I passed by I felt a
heavy shudder and when I checked my driver's side mirror I saw what
any driver does not want to see, the back end of my trailer lifting and rolling
to the curbside ... snap-roll entire tractor-trailer unit onto
curbside! this is as I am crossing the overpass of the exit. The trailer caught
on the railing and the entire unit slid to the end of the overpass and came to
rest at the end of the railing.
I had slowed down prior to hearing the warning as slower speed helps
you handle the trailer in the wind, so, when I flipped I wasn't going more
than 50 mph or so. On the bright side, I wasn't injured (other than my
pride), and I had the best witness one could ask for, a Wy. State Trooper,
he had been sitting in the median facing in my direction doing radar.
That same day there were several other Big rigs blown over and a few
RV as well.
Moral of the story, whenever the road conditions deteriorate speed becomes
your enemy.
hankaye