There are about 6 signs long before they get to the bottom of the pass that say NO TRAILERS. Those same signs say no trucks over 60,000lbs and yet at least once a month some "driver" decides to ignore all that and give it a try. It took me 10 minutes extra to drive the canyon rather than the pass, in an SUV in the summertime. It'd be a dead heat or perhaps faster for a tractor trailer, especially in winter. Why do the knuckle heads take the risk?

JACKSON HOLE, WYO - Once again a semi tractor trailer attempted to sneak over the Pass. It could not have come at a worse time.

Conditions on Teton Pass at the time (just before 5pm) made for difficult travel for any vehicle. WYDOT was issuing a "winter conditions" chain law in effect advisory this afternoon. The trucker also made a gamble right smack in the middle of the rush hour commute home.

The result was a stuck truck needing assistance up and over. The trucker was cited for being overweight and for ignoring road closure to trailer.
Tractor-trailer was cited and towed over the pass into Wyoming, holding up commuters for an hour. (Elisa San Souci)

The incident will no doubt reignite conversations about increasing the penalties truckers face when they opt for a shorter route into Wyoming from decision points like Swan Valley, Idaho. Currently, the fine for bringing a trailer over Teton Pass between Nov. 15 and April 1, when the pass is closed to trailer traffic, is set at $420. Overweight trucks could also face a citation of up to $740, depending on how much over the 60,000-pound limit they are.

And you have to ask why?

You have to realize that he is a professional who is making a living, which renders all of those people that suffered a minor inconvenience due to his actions less deserving of the road.

About the only benefit is they bypass the scales in Alpine. There is an unmanned scale at the Wyoming line at the bottom of the pass. I've maintained that WYDOT needs to man that scale 24/7. Hang the cost and just do it. Create a dozen more jobs.

Love the photo bomb by the backcountry skier. Prolly some good powder skiing up on the pass. I've skied both Jackson Hole and Targhee. 30" one day at Targhee was pretty awesome and this before fat, rockered tip skis.

Forget the inconvenience. There is a 10% grade on that pass that lasts for a long time. Add in the crappy road conditions and it's just dangerous to HIMSELF and everyone else.

There is a fairly large cadre of back country skiers that hike up to Glory Bowl and ski. Teton County Search and Rescue stays busy bring down wounded skiers.

We still need a sarcasm icon.

No, I picked up on the sarcasm. I thought the article completely missed the point. I witnessed a rollover at the base of the pass while we were sitting on the deck of a restaurant last summer. Same old stupid.

WE DO NEED A SARCASM FONT!!!!!!!!!!

Yup in spades.

Insane decisions by truck drivers to circumvent the scales, and also maybe cut some drive time, are stupid, dangerous decisions.

Dedicated routes in mountainous regions should be reserved for those drivers, who follow the law, and know what dangers may entail in those regions. Driver-owners that goes for them as well.
Its just plain nuts, that they have a ton of signs posted, and still have to contend with trucker lawbreakers. Fines should be more.

"Why do the knuckle heads take the risk?"

50%+ of US voters voted for HRC....
Just sayin

Maybe lawbreaking truck drivers should also be drug tested more often as well....

But maybe those signs are just "suggestions" like speed limit signs and those who choose to disobey them should castigate those who choose to obey them. (again, sarcasm)

From last summer

I've worked in the transportation industry since 1984. And some days I scratch my head when I see this type of thing.

About 15-20 years ago, we had a driver take off down an old abandoned logging road near Medford, OR. Signs all over that read "DEAD END". But, because he had a map that showed the road went all the way to Yreka, CA. he just kept going. When he finally got to the end of the road... the DEAD END road, he had to walk out. About 30 miles... to get help.

We had to send pick up trucks to unload the freight into. Take it about 10 miles down the logging road to a wide spot, and load the freight into a different trailer. Then we had to custom fab a "dolly" to hook the original trailer landing gear to so they could tow the "stuck" trailer back to the wide spot. Then he had to go back and get the tractor... Backing down 10 miles of winding abandoned logging road each time. This is not easy... or cheap.

When all was said and done, I think that this cost our company about $10k back in the day.

And this kind of crap happens everyday. When asked why ? Our driver responded "I wanted to take the scenic route".

Professionals are expected to know the rules and follow them.

Back when I was guiding, if a guide got caught in a F&G violation, they got "the book" thrown at them: automatically got double the maximum penalties allowable for a non-guide for the same violation.

So, using that standard ...

This is not merely ignorance, it's contempt. First offense, $5K fine and suspension of commercial license for 15 days. Second, 10 days in jail, $10K fine, loss of commercial license for a year. Laws without teeth are no laws at all.

Tom

Gee that's my neighborhood.... your company isn't the only one...

makes me wonder if such drivers aren't Mexicans....

on the way down to the Tonto Basin, in Nevada at the Junction of US 95 and US 6, north of Tonopah, they were doing road construction...

I came thru there at 10 at night... the road was blocked, and was told the highway was closed...

they had had the road, with one lane closed and a Pilot Car to lead traffic thru the 10 miles of construction...

earlier at 3 PM, they had a batch of cars lined up, waiting for the pilot car... and some Semi didn't want to stop for it all...so he just accelerated around past the flaggers...

Unfortunately a semi was heading out of the North Bound traffic, that the pilot car had just brought thru... the Renegade Trucker, either had the choice of hitting that Semi Head at about 80 mph, or crash into a bunch of parked cars with people who'd been waiting for their turn to follow the pilot car...

he chose the latter.... Killed 5 people, plus messed up a bunch of others...at the time they were sure how many he'd killed, because officials and emergency crews hadn't got their to respond.... even by 10 Pm, the dead were still in the cars they had been killed in...

The south bound truck that didn't want to stop was driven by a Mexican, high on meth, cabin smelled like he'd been smoking dope which was found in the cab, along with empty alcohol bottles.... he's here illegally.. driving for some Trucking outfit ( Hispanic Owned) out of LA....

I took the 150 mile detour.. a lot of other vehicles idling around at 10 PM were there, as they didn't have the fuel to take the detour... there was no fuel on it... they needed to fill up in Tonopah... heard they opened the road about 7 the next morning...

had my wife, who I called at home, looking for it being on the news, and all she found was that the highway was closed, and not much else... guess the politically correct media didn't want to slander an upstanding Mexican Citizen.....

and the 5 people killed just didn't matter...

I got my story from one of the Highway Workers, who was directing people where to turn 5 miles down the detour... he was out there by himself and no other vehicles in sight...

I wonder if they just deported the Mexican...

he'd been deported multiple times according to the Highway worker, who got that from one of the Nevada State Troopers... plus the trucker had spent time in jail in California for pulling this running the construction area flaggers once before...

you just know he'll be back driving truck once again, unless Trump's Administration clamps down on this illegal immigration crap...

A couple of months ago I posted about a truck accident on the same pass. Woman with ethnic sounding name from Florida was the driver on that one. The one I posted the picture of from summer was a Haitian driver. I've no idea about the driver from the other day. There could be a pattern developing.

Up and down I 5, there sure are a lot of foreigners running that route...

Mexicans from the south end, and Indians and Pakistanis from up around Vancouver BC....

was funny turning on a CB Radio and listening to them jabboring on it while driving down the highway...

wanna piss them off, jump on the channel and tell them to speak English, as it is required by Federal Communication Laws....

They can speak enough English to get out F.U.

Liberalism marches on...

I could not be a truck driver! I hate to drive!!

By far some of the dumbest crap I've ever seen pulled on the highway has been by truckers. I'm sure someone will be along shortly to remind me that all truckers are consummate professionals that never do anything stupid or reckless.

The truck driver no speaky Engles.

A lot of the so called "truck drivers" cant' even speak English. I worked on these roads for over 30 years. They give idiots drivers license's.
They follow a GPS that says this is the shortest route. They are payed to drive, not to think.
I'll bet the driver was a none English speaking "emigrant". Seen it a thousand times.

South of Hansen, ID is a road that goes up to a snowmobile area where it ends in the winter. In the summer, you can take it to Oakley, ID although it's a dirt single track for a good part of the way. One winter, lots of years ago, a trucker took it in the winter to bypass a scale. He got to the snowmobile area and just kept on going, past the parking lot, and right onto the unplowed road where he buried it thoroughly. It was during a stormy period with lots of new snow and wind. It took over a week to dig him out because it kept drifting back in. The newspaper ran daily photos of the digging progress. I can't even guess what it cost the idiot.

I average ~ 20K miles of highway driving a year and I will not be the one to correct you.

More and more companies are hiring anyone who walks through the door with a CDL because drivers are in such short supply. Add in the NAFTA crew that Obama unleashed on us, and there are a lot more problem children pushing iron now than ever before.

Go sit in a Pilot or Loves truck stop for a while and take a look at some of the folks who pull their rigs into the lots.

Pretty scary.

Y'all be safe out there!

Ed

Same reason I90 passes between MT and ID get jacked up every other day, because some fugg stain doesn't think he needs chains when the chains required sign is out. Then instead of stopping when they get stuck, they go full freaking retard and spin the tires until they are fully jack knifed across all possible lanes blocking traffic until a tow rig get get them pulled out.


Chit like that should be automatic 6 months suspension first offense and permanent revocation the second.

All them foreign numbnuts....

Ya gotta do something that they will remember, and the word will get around....

Castrating their left nut with as broken beer bottle would make them heed those signs and I bet you the word will get around regardless of what language they speak or don't....

Two or three winters ago, I was driving west in thick freezing fog out of Bliss toward Glenns Ferry. I could see good enough to go about 45. Truck after truck passed me going downhill at about 80. Guess what I found at the bottom of the hill. Same deal as the eastbound side just before starting the climb out of the river canyon - trucks all over the sides of the road.....sideways, on their sides, etc. At least they had the courtesy to not block the road.

Ladd Canyon over in eastern Oregon.....being blocked by jacknifed trucks has gotten so predictable that they close it down almost at the drop of the first snowflake.

Friend of mine made good cash money while laid off one winter not too long ago, cruising the bottom of the hill for truckers that didn't know how to install snow chains. They just sat there in line, waiting their turn, while he collected hundreds for a few hours of work.

Real pros.

I don't want to sit here and just generally bash truck drivers. Like every other profession there are thousands of them and it's only a certain percentage that truly suck. Some of these guys we're talking about right now probably just made one bad decision on that particular day. Who knows why. Any other day and they'd be considered a good driver. Happens to all of us. For the ones that are just doofus's with a CDL, I have nothing but contempt.

watch a few episodes of Hiway thru Hell on youtube and you will never want to drive the Hiways again.

+1

Years ago, I saw a truck coming to the dead end where I was fishing. Poor guy was sent that way by another trucker, telling him it was a short cut. Don't know what he did to deserve that. Took him all day to get turned around.

Fact check....

http://pvtimes.com/tonopah/esmeralda-crash-claims-lives-two-locals-closing-highway-11-hours

This is why those of us the were professional called them "steering wheel holders". Son and I did the OTR thing for five years before we got fed up and quit. This was after the open heart surgery "retired" me from the Sheriff's Dept. I just could not suffer the fools on he road or in the terminals.

Saw the same thing on 4th of July Pass is Colorado.

probably following his gps. i have seen some trucks on roads that are barely passable with a car. gps takes away everyones common sense.

I get following the GPS, I've had mine lead me astray once; but how do you ignore at least 6 signs saying you don't belong there? That's willful stupidity.

There's a road close to our house that is about 5 mile down hill with parts at 18% grade. Last Fall a guy driving a full cement mixer followed his GPS down it. He ended up rolling it on close to the bottom. Killed him.

Just another inconsiderate truck driver who thinks the law doesn't apply to him!

my camp is at the end of a mile long one lane dead end gravel road. the gps shows it connecting with another road but there is a about a 100 yard wide strip of wooded private property with just a narrow foot path connecting the two. we have multiple dead end signs all along the road, including one that says "your GPS is WRONG". we have had several ups trucks buried to the axles stuck on the path. last year we had an 18 wheeler come down and get buried in the snow trying to turn around. we had a truck come down one time and try to turn around in my neighbors yard and ripped down their satellite dish, cable and pole and try to run off but they got caught.

I have worked road construction for most of my life and public traffic is a real PITA. Seen idiots bypass flaggers, pass the pilot car and get stuck and hold up traffic for hours while we were getting them unstuck. One time we were using a one lane township road for a detour with pilot car and a semi ran out of fuel in the middle. I broke two chains before I got a cable heavy enough to stand the strain. After that I kept a cable on the blade and had to use often.

Most local drivers around here are fine, four months of winter in the mountains weeds out the bad ones pretty quick. I90 gets a lot of through traffic, I've seen truck drivers with shorts and sandels on the pass in winter. Those type of drivers should stay south, way south. They should have a snow endorsement to make sure they can at least throw chains. Amazing companies would throw clueless drivers in trucks and route them through the mountains in winter, with zero training in snow. I always thought getting stuck on the pass and blocking traffic should be at least $10k and hour fine.

FYI, getting a tow on Mullan pass takes at least 2 hours if the 1968 tow truck in Haugan will even start .

Trucks??

This one flipped here in WNY today near a job site I was on. We had just lost power at the house and we were headed back to the office. At least a half dozen flipped today as we had some HD winds. Even 29 train cars went over in Batavia.

I've read this about 5 times now, and just keep laughing. That is some damn fine descriptive writing! Not a word wasted and I can picture it very clearly, plus your recommended punishment is spot on....

GPS can be a big rigs best friend and worse enemy at same time .

Normally, a GPS (Garmin, anyway) will set you up with the best route. Stay on it and you'll get there.
It's when you start 2d guessing the device that you get in trouble. If you leave the set route, it will find what it thinks is the next best route. If you leave that, it'll keep on finding roads of some kind, no matter what they look like.
Getting screwed by your GPS is almost always user error.

Just typical brain dead truckie!! Dumber than a box of goat $hit

I would have fired him on the spot, w/o hesitation, & told him to take the scenic route home.

I agree with WyoGal, need more drug testing of truck drivers. The only thing "professional" about them is that they have a CDL.

MM

I am an over the road truck driver. I drive between South Carolina and Laredo Texas. Heavy snow down here is 2 inches.
And rarely do you see that.

That is really wild, a mountain pass where you cannot pull a trailer in winter due to steep grades and heavy snow. I never heard of such a thing.
I love the snow but I would not want to go near such conditions in the Big Rig.

Why do truckers disobey these rules? Because they are selfish dumb asses.
They certainly ought to increase the penalties. Hell the rules are plain and simple.
Why not revoke the CDL for six months? That would put a quick stop to this BS.

EVERY interstate truck driver is drug tested before starting a new job, and under a random drug and alcohol testing regime while holding a commercial driving job. Most any on-the-road incident, including accidents, require immediate post-event drug and alcohol testing.

As far as driving on snow, our record for our run from Grace, Idaho to Vancouver, B.C for "chains on" mileage, one way was 274 miles this year. I just bought the third complete set for the truck this season.

If you like to have toilet paper to wipe with, thank a trucker....

Biggest reason is "employee turnover" not to mention a huge need for more experienced drivers"... federal laws that were changed about 15 years ago aren't obliging or favorable to long term employment of experienced drivers, resulting in new breed who aren't really interested in much of anything! Much less safety!

Phil

What percentage of any demographic have you met that seems "bright enought?"

CDL holders are no different.

I hope this answers your question.




Travis

Remember, 49% of any group is below average, and the lowest 10% is WAY below average.

When the teacher graded on the curve, 10% of the class got an F, usually for very good reasons, but they were still out there on the playground, every day. And you had to keep your eye on them. And you still do.

Truer words never spoken!

Slavey,

Glad you found that.. I've been unable to with the Google Search efforts.....

that would be the location... but what is reported and what I was told by two people directing detour traffic at 10 at night, they told an entirely different story... but two told the same story, at two check points, 5 miles apart...

either they had their facts wrong or the media is covering up politically incorrect stuff...I did see 3 cars off the side of the road that were demolished... about the size of a Mazda 3, or VW Rabbit/Golf...

do know the route was blocked from 3 PM to 7 AM the next morning...

and there were a lot of cars waiting it out, not having the fuel to take the 150 mile detour...which came out just north of Beatty...

I remember hearing something on this from a friend of mine, who comes from a family trucking company. His dad started the company, and both dad and sons made a good name of it for many years. It seems that about 15years ago or so, things changed relative to Federal laws. That's about when my friend sold the the company, and got his college degree, and changed professions, at the age of 52. He did well for himself.
I have another friend, who has driven truck as a second profession now for 25yrs or so. He's 72yr old and now drives local routes.
Yes, I'm grateful to those who have dedicated many years to the trucking profession, who were conscientious drivers, who obeyed the laws, and didn't do drugs or booze.

Last Summer at a business the shipping guy told me some towel head Paki backed in. The shipping guy went out and there was a goat sticking his head out the drivers window. I can't imagine the smell.

I piss in a bottle for drug tests all the time. Pre employment, random tests, any accident that results in a personal injury or tow away of car/truck. Breathalyzer on demand at any time. How many more times would you like? There's more problems with doped up or drunk car drivers.

Maybe do a brain scan to see what's up there on most!! ooooooooooops another empty space !!!

I also distinctly remember a gal, I briefly knew back around 2007, who had bipolar disorder, who was a trainer driver, for a company that "will not be named." She took new hires out on her runs, and then signed them off to drive solo. By her own words, when she had a JIT load and was running behind, she would stop taking her bipolar meds, which then would make her manic. In her manic state, she was fearless, driving like a demon to get that load where it needed to go, on time. She drove out of Denver.
Every time I saw a truck with that company logo on the road, I'd stay waaay the heck away from it.

Years ago, when they were building the stretch of I-84 between Boise and Mtn Home, ID, there was a line of cars stopped waiting for a pilot car. A Garrett Freight Line driver pulling triples hit the back of the line at 60. I don't remember the details but there were some people killed. It was pretty ugly.

They had a situation similar to what you described, out this way between Shoshoni and Riverton a couple years ago.

Construction going on, one lane, several signs posted miles before and up to it. One car of people killed. Lucky there wasn't more.

And every year, it seems at least one wipe out and tipover along the Wind river canyon. Driving too fast for conditions or driver "falls asleep." Shuts down the road for hours.

How do you know if they are a sleep or awake?? Don't see any difference in driving either way!! Guess they are asleep when they drive 20 miles with their blinker on!!

In medical terms it's called dumshititis.

There are about 2 million truck drivers in America.
If one percent are screw-ups, then you have 20,000 screw-ups with CDLs. In any industry you are going to have at least 1 percent that are screw ups.

So the other 1,980,000 truck drivers obey the rules and deliver the freight on time.
And it is a good thing that we do, otherwise, you would have no gasoline at your gas station, you would have no milk or chicken at your grocery store, you would have no clothes at WalMart. In fact, your WalMart would be empty.

After about 5 days with no truck drivers, American society would collapse.

A lot of big industries don't stock parts. They order what they need for a day and depend on the trucks to deliver. If the truck doesn't get there, they're shut down.

Yeah, there's a lot of husband/wife teams doing cross country now. Makes the drive easier.

Which is about twice as long compared to no staffing at the mall cell phone stores.

"Commercial company" maybe? Wonder what the lease rate per night was?

And what percentage text while "driving"? I see truckers weaving all over I25, near here, who are looking down in their laps. Grrrrrr!!!!!!!

I remember this incident also. The young man driving the pickup for the oilfield service outfit(?) had trouble with his vision and the lighting conditions at the time supposedly made it hard for him to see all the signs and backed up traffic.
I hear of incidents like this and others cited makes me wonder not only about some of the people behind the wheel, but how about some of the supervisors, trainers, and CDL testing facilities performing the physicals.

Driving the big rig 11 hours a day, I rarely see truck drivers texting.
However, I see 4 wheeler drivers texting all the time. Especially a female under 40 years of age, they have their Iphone in their hands constantly. I see a dozen a day texting away. And swerving all over the road while they do.
It is worse than drunk driving.

Nothing like following a truckie on the interstate going off the shoulder ,to the centerline,then realizing he was fixing a sandwich, then not feeling bad for wishing he had flipped it over off the road !! Stupid pi$$heads

Can't remember the name of the company right off, was a line outfit we use to use to haul government owned machinery for us up to the Naval Supply Center-Rough and Ready Island, most of their trucks were big red wide, long nose Pete 379 conventionals. This was some 25+ years ago, pot-head looking kid looking to be in his mid 20's up on old route 99 in the central valley of California passes me up on the left of the two lane highway, kicked back in truck, yapping away on CB, barefoot and with his feet up on the dash with truck in cruise-control... don't really know how fast he was going, little faster than me and I'd usually be doing right at 70 up through there. Talking to enough of their drivers I know their truck were rigged to do 90+ heavily loaded. Most were some of the safest drivers you'd find on the road... this guy mentioned couldn't have stopped that rig in an emergency if he had to.

Phil