Morons on the road....

Tonight I was driving back from Fairbanks in the Dark, the roads are covered in ice and very rough and slippery. I was driving along at about 55 MPH, speed limit is 65 MPH but even 55 tonight was pushing the limits of the road.

A set of headlights came up behind me at a very high rate of speed, and started to pass. So I waited and nothing was there, looked in the mirror and it was all dark. So I stopped and went back knowing there was no road turnoffs there...

The Truck was on it's side about sixty feet off into the woods. Three guys climbed out of it, they did seem to be alright, but shaken. They won't know until tomorrow if they in fact were hurt when the aches start to roll in.

I called a wrecker for them (very isolated road at night and temp was about -20), they didn't appear to have been drinking and were moving OK. They had drove from Anchorage to Fairbanks to attend a friends funeral yesterday, and were driving back to Anchorage.

They were going in excess of 75 MPH on very poor road conditions (straight road there though), and missed my truck by a few feet.

I see people drive like that all the time and wonder why there isn't more of them in the ditches or getting killed or killing others. For a number of years I ran my wrecker up and down this area of the highway and have seen all sorts of wrecks, many fatal... Sometimes a 1,200 lb moose will walk/run out into the road and there is noway you can stop or at those speeds even get around them.

Just pisses me off at this kind of stupidity...

Seen a little Ranger 4x4 off the road about 100ft. out in a swampy area yesterday. The road is a posted 55 and folks run that straightaway at up to 80 or more. Cops run speed traps all the time and they still fly through there. Funny part is the 30 mph town a few miles up the road they are always waiting at the light after passing you.

Yeah, when they told me they were returning from a funeral, I thought that was just great, kill yourself while off to see off the dead....

too much watching ice roads truckers

dds said:

too much watching ice roads truckers

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Yeah!

All Thanksgiving weekend, we had a icing rain, the ice was built up in areas to an inch thick in places on the highway. The State guys have been scraping and getting the roads in good shape, but some people just don't pay attention at all.

http://www.forumsforums.com/3_9/member.php?u=288fogtender,
I see this in Wisconsin too. It pisses me off. The road is slippery as hell.. and some idiot will just have to pass.. and barely stay on the road. I always look for them in the ditch up ahead.

Some time ago in a snow storm a car come up behind me started flashing his lights and blowing his horn. Finally started passing me and got about 5 car lengths past me and the spun around and into the ditch. He looked fine I kept driving. I figured if I stopped he would have figured it all to be my fault because I was driving the conditions. I chuckle about that every so often.

thcri,
I'm still laughing!! Reminds me of: Ya get what ya had coming. I'll bet that a hole who would have blamed his bad driving on you still cusses you out to this day. But WE are laughing at him. Glad you drove on

tsaw said:

fogtender,
I see this in Wisconsin too. It pisses me off. The road is slippery as hell.. and some idiot will just have to pass.. and barely stay on the road. I always look for them in the ditch up ahead.

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It happens in Kansas too, especially the first time or two it snows or ices up a bit. It's like people forget every year how to drive in winter weather conditions. They also seem to suffer from the same psychological disorder that prevails in St Louis; the delusional belief that they'll be safer if they drive really, really fast so they can get home and off the road quicker!!

And a number of them end up decorating ditches, culverts, and bridge abutments every year.