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Wife of truck driver in bridge collapse says husband has 'impeccable' record

j-mac said:
Yeah, what are the duties of the Pilot car? Do you know?
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It doesn't matter. The driver made a clear mistake. Is a driver suppose to be a lemming, or do some of his own thinking?

What required him to be in the right lane?
 
Lord of Planar said:
It doesn't matter. The driver made a clear mistake. Is a driver suppose to be a lemming, or do some of his own thinking?

What required him to be in the right lane?
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You've been told several times, hell within the past 10 minutes by two of us on this board whom are probably the most qualified to comment on this.

Feigning obtuse is no excuse.

I'll give you a clue, and I truly hope you read this. The pilot car is there to ensure safety in navigating exactly these situations. they are to run blocker for the load to clear traffic for the truck to take the necessary lanes to ensure safe passage of the obsticle. Last line, last line all you want. Jerry and I do this for a living, and I am here to tell ya, that the pilot cars service dropped the ball.
 
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j-mac said:
You've been told several times, hell within the past 10 minutes by two of us on this board whom are probably the most qualified to comment on this.

Feigning obtuse is no excuse.
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Well, say what you want. Bottom line is the driver struck the bridge with a rather solid steel load, causing the collapse. No way, that anyone will convince me it wasn't his fault because he was following instructions. That seems to be what you are implying.
 
Lord of Planar said:
Do you stay in the right lane if you see one of these and another truck is next to you, or do you adjust your speed to move over?
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Please re-create the free-way chess for the proceeding 2 miles.

In detail.

Make sure the links to your source material and simulation work, I'll be checking them.
 
Lord of Planar said:
No, but I have driven military 5 tons.
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I drive military 5-tons now. I also drive military M916s with a flat-bed; wide and heavy loads. They are not the same animal. You cannot switch lanes on the fly, you have a long vehicle to see around and ensure clearance first.
 
Lord of Planar said:
No way, that anyone will convince me it wasn't his fault because he was following instructions.
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Good thing for anyone, then, that you're very irrelevant.

This is not an opinion sounding board. This is a debate site. The purpose of debate is to prove an argument true or false. Not convince anyone of anything. That you refuse to be convinced is irrelevant. We will use you for as long as we desire to expose your continued lies and distortions.

5-tons, pft....every private fresh out of BCT drives a 5-ton. That's hardly a credential.
 
Jerry said:
Good thing for anyone, then, that you're very irrelevant.

This is not an opinion sounding board. This is a debate site. The purpose of debate is to prove an argument true or false. Not convince anyone of anything. That you refuse to be convinced is irrelevant. We will use you for as long as we desire to expose your continued lies and distortions.

5-tons, pft....every private fresh out of BCT drives a 5-ton. That's hardly a credential.
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Wow...

Dismissal...

I'm sorry, but again, the bottom line is the driver is the last safety check.

There is no way you guys can deny that fact.
 
j-mac said:
What do you think the responsibilities of a pilot car service are? Good God man. If you hold truck drivers in such low regard, then do us the favor of not commenting any further, because you just don't know what the hell you are talking about here.
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But if there is a citation here, the truck driver will receive it, right? Even if the pilot car does not warn the driver of an impeding conflict.

So in essence the buck stops with the truck driver even if he got crappy information from the pilot car.
 
Lord of Planar said:
Wow...

Dismissal...

I'm sorry, but again, the bottom line is the driver is the last safety check.

There is no way you guys can deny that fact.
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No one is denying that. In fact BOTH of us, Jerry and I have said that moving over to the left lane, or taking, at the least the middle of both lanes was what should have happened....Here is what that would look like in real time spelled out for you, and what possibly went wrong....

1. 1.5 miles from bridge - Lead Pilot car radio's convoy of up coming bridge in 1.5 miles.

2. .8 to .5 milels from bridge - Rear Pilot car radio's to convoy moving to left lane, clear for both lanes proceed.

3. Crossing bridge - Rear Pilot car informs truck and lead car of traffic behind him, and what the potential is when bridge is clear for cars/trucks passing.

4. Clear bridge - All vehicles move to right and proceed. Lead Pilot car resumes radio control of up coming obstacles.

That is how a smooth transition goes. The reason you have pilot cars for a move of this sort is because of several factors....

a. The load is wide enough to hamper vision around to the back

b. The truck carrying the load will be going below the posted speed.

c. The load will be traveling through high traffic areas, and extra marking and safety are needed.

Now, a possible scenerio that could have contributed to this accident.

1a. Traffic was heavy, and would not yield right of way to load.

2b. Cars beside load allowed barely enough room for load to clear structure of bridge.

3c. Other tractor trailer moved along side of load causing load driver to move to the right.

4d. Load strikes bridge support.

Now, We know that the driver was not arrested, and was cooperating with State authorities, so yours, and others just blanket placement of blame on him is obviously incorrect. We also know that a part of that reason is that another truck headed the same direction refused to yield the right of way for the load to properly take the center of both lanes, and that the pilot cars failed their job to secure both lanes for the load. We know that the bridge had a safety rating of 57 out of 100, and that it was the main connection between Washington State, and Canada. The NTSB will be the final word, but so far this jerk type response to jump straight to blame the trucker driver for the accident is just plain wrong. Now, that is not to say that he doesn't bear some of the responsibility of the accident, but, to move a load like this there is a lot of support to the driver in place for a reason, and just plainly not enough 4 wheelers that know or care how to drive around big trucks, let alone think that their actions on the road have consequences after they zoom past....And to the driver of the other tractor that pinned the load to the right, HE is the one that should loose his damned licence...

I mean, I can get mad at 4 wheelers all day long, and tell stories of their dumb assed driving around trucks on the road, but for another Class A CDL driver to pull such a bone headed move as to pass a large load on a bridge? Well, let's just say that driver should not be behind the wheel of a big truck period.

Now, carry on.
 
Crosscheck said:
But if there is a citation here, the truck driver will receive it, right? Even if the pilot car does not warn the driver of an impeding conflict.

So in essence the buck stops with the truck driver even if he got crappy information from the pilot car.
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Yeah, and I am not disputing that the driver of the load may have born some of the responsibility of the incident at all. But I didn't see any reports of the driver being cited, or even arrested. In fact one story say that he wasn't. Now one thing you should know about this, also, The pilot car company could be cited instead of the driver if it is determined that they failed to do their job in crossing the bridge and created an unsafe crossing.

My guess is that both the driver, and the pilot company were determined to have done everything possible to avoid accidents, and that final determination is held off until the NTSB are done with their investigations. So, at this time it is speculation, but my guess is that the driver will be cleared due to traffic causing the accident.
 
apdst said:
The country isn't banrupt.
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Right, just trillions and trillions of dollars in the hole. Several trillions in the rathole known as Iraq. The famous OIL spigot, Iraq. The democracy where the guy with the most votes didn't get elected, oops, that also happened with GWBush, the first torturer. Iran's new friend and our great ally, Iraq. YUP. Iraq-greed, war profiteers, death, chaos, destruction, long term contamination, DU contamination, millions of refugees, torture, lies, Abu Ghraib, and then there is Solyndra, a failed business with greed.
 
apdst said:
The country isn't banrupt.
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Right, just trillions and trillions of dollars in the hole. Several trillions in the rathole known as Iraq. The famous OIL spigot, Iraq. The democracy where the guy with the most votes didn't get elected, oops, that also happened with GWBush, the first torturer. Iran's new friend and our great ally, Iraq. YUP. Iraq-greed, war profiteers, death, chaos, destruction, long term contamination, DU contamination, millions of refugees, torture, lies, Abu Ghraib, and then there is Solyndra, a failed business with greed.
 
DaveFagan said:
Right, just trillions and trillions of dollars in the hole. Several trillions in the rathole known as Iraq. The famous OIL spigot, Iraq. The democracy where the guy with the most votes didn't get elected, oops, that also happened with GWBush, the first torturer. Iran's new friend and our great ally, Iraq. YUP. Iraq-greed, war profiteers, death, chaos, destruction, long term contamination, DU contamination, millions of refugees, torture, lies, Abu Ghraib, and then there is Solyndra, a failed business with greed.
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Oh brother...:roll: Any other distraction, and deflection, or cliched crap that has nothing to do with this thread you'd like to put out there? If so, please get it out of your system so we can get back to discussing the topic.
 
j-mac said:
Oh brother...:roll: Any other distraction, and deflection, or cliched crap that has nothing to do with this thread you'd like to put out there? If so, please get it out of your system so we can get back to discussing the topic.
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How many lanes wide is/was this bridge. Two lanes, four lanes, six lanes, what lanes were the driver's options.
 
DaveFagan said:
How many lanes wide is/was this bridge. Two lanes, four lanes, six lanes, what lanes were the driver's options.
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The entire scenerio is in the OP article, I suggest you read it, then come on back.
 
Jerry said:
I drive military 5-tons now. I also drive military M916s with a flat-bed; wide and heavy loads. They are not the same animal. You cannot switch lanes on the fly, you have a long vehicle to see around and ensure clearance first.
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I've been driving trucks for 13 years, including overdimesional loads just like this and bigger.

The driver is at fault. He's the ONLY person involved that could jave directly effected the outcome.

And, yes, you can change lanes on thr fly.
 
apdst said:
I've been driving trucks for 13 years, including overdimesional loads just like this and bigger.

The driver is at fault. He's the ONLY person involved that could jave directly effected the outcome.

And, yes, you can change lanes on thr fly.
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Simply stating this or that is at fault isn't good enough. This is a debate site, not an opinion sounding board....paint a picture of the situation, what actually occurred, and link to your source material.

No doubt the driver has some portion of the fault, but clearly not all the fault. Drivers have no control over the bridge's condition, for example. Even if we all shake hands and agree that striking the bridge is 100% the driver's fault (which we don't), the bridge should not have fallen.
 
Jerry said:
Simply stating this or that is at fault isn't good enough. This is a debate site, not an opinion sounding board....paint a picture of the situation, what actually occurred, and link to your source material.

No doubt the driver has some portion of the fault, but clearly not all the fault. Drivers have no control over the bridge's condition, for example. Even if we all shake hands and agree that striking the bridge is 100% the driver's fault (which we don't), the bridge should not have fallen.
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I'm telling you the facts and the fact is, the driver made a bad decision. He was the only person that could decide not to proceed.
 
apdst said:
I'm telling you the facts and the fact is, the driver made a bad decision. He was the only person that could decide not to proceed.
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Because someone (you) on the internet said so? You expect me to believe just whatever I read online?

Imagine me talking to someone in real life about this...I assert that the driver was at fault, the real person in front of me asks how I know, and I say "because someone online told me".

Yeah ****ing right. I wasn't born yesterday bro.

Links to evidence are all that matters.
 
Wow.

I really don't understand you guys. How about this for evidence, since a picture says a thousand words:

truckthatcallapsedbridgeedit_zps6019edec.png


He didn't just clip part of the bridge, he was so far to the right that he was at or near the 12' 6" point for his 15' 9" load. He hit it very solidly.

No way in hell he didn't go out knowing the bridge low point dimensions. Still on him if he didn't.
 
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Lord of Planar said:
Wow.

I really don't understand you guys. How about this for evidence, since a picture says a thousand words:

truckthatcallapsedbridgeedit_zps6019edec.png


He didn't just clip part of the bridge, he was so far to the right that he was at or near the 12' 6" point for his 15' 9" load. He hit it very solidly.

No way in hell he didn't go out knowing the bridge low point dimensions. Still on him if he didn't.
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He was in the correct lane up until he got almost all the way across the bridge. Then for WHATEVER reason he obviously veered to his right and clipped the part of the overhead suspension that is lower. Locally I never even heard of the "2nd" truck and the news leaves it open ended and a possibility if you read the words carefully. But the news also says rescue got there in 10 minutes and saved people when in fact they got there MUCH later and the people saved themselves. If they can lie about the rescue operation why cant they lie about "2nd truck" for whatever reason. How could he be in the correct lane all the way until the end and then suddenly "another truck wouldnt yeild right of way" shoving him out of the good lane?


To me this doesnt make much sense.
 
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