Weather and Safety

California windmills working hard

It seems that we have a knack for hitting some of the worst weather! Don't ask me how it happens - believe me, if I knew how, we would avoid the bad weather! In the past month we got stuck in torrential rainstorms in Texas, drove seven hours through extremely dense fog from mid Illinois down to Memphis, Tennessee, and had to stop for 12 hours to keep from being blown off the road in Ohio.

The wind was so strong Wednesday that we couldn't keep the truck on the road. It didn't help that we had an empty trailer with no weight to help hold us down. My sweetheart was driving down the right lane and the trailer was on the shoulder when we decided it was time to pull over. The wind was 25-30mph with gusts up to 51mph. We pulled over at a rest area and told our dispatch that we didn't feel safe to drive. Just sitting in the parked semi, the whole truck was rocking back and forth!

We have agreed that anytime either one of us doesn't feel safe about the roads, we will not drive. No load is worth risking an accident, causing damage to the property we are hauling or endangering ourselves and the people traveling around us.

#3 is very serious about driving

As we are coming into winter, weather is becoming a greater concern. Anyone driving in winter needs to be mindful of changing conditions, snow, ice, etc - but when piloting 50,000 to 80,000 pounds cruising down the highway, caution in bad weather conditions is absolutely a matter of life or death. Driving something this big and heavy is a huge responsibility that must be taken very seriously for the sake of our own lives and everyone else around us, not to mention the freight that we have been entrusted to transport.

Every day I see truckers doing stupid things, dangerous things, usually out of laziness. God forbid we ever become complacent about driving a semi, because most accidents are caused by carelessness.

Stay safe out there.