It's been nasty out there. It is reported about 40-60 vehicles involved and the highway had to be shut down for several hours to clean up the location.
I'm a commercial driver. The road conditions were too dangerous for safe travel. The drivers should have found a safe place to park and waited it out. This is something major companies encourage. Rescheduling deliveries is standard procedure due to weather delays.
I am retired now,but I drove for 38yrs and never got into a accident, I always knew when it was time to say when,and park it,and wait until it was safe to drive again.
As an old, car-driving simpleton, don't truckers use CBs or something similar anymore to at least give each other a little warning as to what's going on down the road a mile?
“We got us a convoy,” Breaker, Breaker 19!!!! Oh, it is not a convoy, but a bunch of idiots that don’t know how to use a CB!!!! Yes, weather played a role, but having a CB, and using it would have saved a lot of money and time.
I started driving tractor trailer in the late 70s. I use to drive i80 all the time year round, occasionally a multi vehicle wreck but we really never saw this kind of stuff. Nowadays I think it’s everyone is in a rush, distracted driving and people just not caring. I could be wrong but I’m glad after 43+ years I just drive a dump truck part time to make a couple bucks. I loved my time driving cross country years ago, great memories. Everyone stay safe out there.
I first crossed I-80 in 1970, used US 30 as much as possible as soon as I understood that it was vastly more peaceful. Some claimed freeways were supposed to offer better mileage. I was avoiding Freeways whenever possible, and was among the top fuel economy drivers on 4 fleets. The freeways are built to keep the Twits out of the way of those who understand how to drive......
my thoughts exactly. expect fewer road maintenance crews too. that's everywhere. wyoming always has wicked black ice. slow down. and those big chunks of ice falling off of the 18 wheelers will rip your oil pan off. you won't see it till it's too late.
I-80 is a miserable bitch to drive even in good conditions. The problem is 4 wheelers underestimate the ability of a fully loaded semi to go faster or safely change lanes.
I've had a CB since 1976 when radio rules/laws were truly followed with rare exceptions, and I've been trucking since 1996. It's routinely off since the early 2000s due to all the trash talking profanity. Then if I turn it on to give a road report warning, the only response will be a troll arguing there is no ice, snow, etc. I just turn it on when approaching weigh stations and off when I pass. I do recommend a police scanner set to receive the DOT channel; this can be enormously helpful, including hearing when the incident closed road will open. Happy trails:)
@@bccoregon I grew up as a kid in the seventies and knew that the CB radio was something that truckers used to make good conversation and help one another and other commuters. I was never aware of anyone rejecting a road warning from another driver via the CB radio. This present generation just don't get it.
Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly !! Good advice from an old trucker when I got my license at 18yrs old. After 39 going on 40yrs, that old man was right then, and now. The mans Name was Carlos Contreras. Rest in peace "my Carlos". 😔
You see this all the time, yes I drive truck and there's so many idiots behind the wheel of semis it's crazy. Blowing snow practically a whiteout and you get passed by another big truck prob going 100 or over
Don't these truckers have CB radios and warn other truckers about the collisions and stuck vehicles they are approaching? Hard to believe a driver would be speeding in blizzard conditions but they do. And even funnier is how they blame the 4-wheelers for everything under the sun. Professional drivers must be a very small minority in the ranks.
I remember the day this happened. An old retiree from our shop had to drive in this. He said he came close to getting pinched on more than one occasion. He got forced off the road in order to avoid the worst of it.
I grew up in Wyoming and Colorado, and everyone knows this stretch of I-80 is nasty in the winter. What I don't understand is why these drivers didn't slow down earlier. I'm not a commercial driver, and all the driving training I have is high school driver's ed class. But one thing they drilled into us was to never go so fast that you can't stop before the range of your vision. So if visibility is only 200 yards, you drive at a speed where you can come to a full stop in less than 200 yards. If it's icy, then the 200 yard stopping speed is lower than if it's not icy. Are other drivers not taught this same "rule of thumb" or did all these people severely underestimate how slick the roads were?
Collector2006 I don't think I follow your point. Are you saying that after the equinox drivers expect there to be never be snow on the road, and start ignoring the weather reports and forecasts? Mother Nature doesn't work that way, at least not in Wyoming. Snowstorms happen in April and sometimes May. Or are you just nitpicking that I wrote "winter" when it's formally "spring" right now? Regardless of the official season, these were winter driving conditions.
Todd Bradley Collector is trying to show the world how smart he/she is by knowing the date. I agree that any snow storm that creates blizzard conditions constitutes winter no matter what the date is. I too grew up in CO & now live in "WyoBraska" and the weather is the same in between here & there!
This is a potentially dangerous road year round, and March and April in Wyoming at 7000+ ft means winter. It has snowed in June and July at the Summit. Everyone in the area knows that. We have had blizzards in late May in Cheyenne.
@Ari Douglas yes very true they need to slow dow alot more. I watch trucks pass me in the storm i say to myself see ya in the median. They should be paid by hour once they go under a certain mph for safety if everyone did it alot of death and damage could be avioded
Been driving 10 years the turn rate on drivers is high nobody wants to be a driver so alot are new and many are new immigrants that have never seen snow so they go bang I see it everyday.
It only takes one idiot to make this happen Most trucks stop in time only to be rear ended by the one that made the mistake. If you're rear ended by a truck on ice than you're going to be pushed pretty far into the stopped traffic ahead of you.
Chain reaction wrecks in fog or snow. You can be the best driver on the planet and still get crushed like tin can. Get away from your car as soon as you get the chance. Get well off to the side because more wrecks are coming.
If the roads are bad and you feel you must drive and there is an increased risk of an accident, be prepared for the worst. Drive with your jacket on and gloves in your pocket. That's what I did (1974 to 2019). Fortunately I never had to crawl through the busted out windshield of an overturned truck. Imagine what it would be like in a T-shirt and shorts.
My son is a trucker and when he’s on the road it’s very worrying....he has travelled many miles in the worst conditions north and south of the U.S. and Canadian border...keep safe all of you road warriors.
All the goddam truckers need to do is slow the hell down! I cant count the number of times ive traveled in this kind of weather going SLOW and Semi's fly by.
As a truck driver I can verify this. Many cars are to low to see inside a semi when passing one but I see WAY TOO MANY TRUCK DRIVERS handling thier phones. I keep my phone on a window stick hands free device and ONLY use it for Truck GPS! As CDL holders we have a major responsibility to the public.
Those "professional" drivers need to lose their licenses. I'm a truck driver, I was passed the other day by a guy in another big rig that had to be going over 90 mph. I see young guys with their feet up on the dash, while they're driving. Most of this was avoidable. And once it happens you're on your own. Those first responders are going to wait until it's safe to run into that mess. They have families waiting on them at home.
Ouch, so much damage, all those semis and so much ice. No brains amongst them anywhere! Better to be late than not get there at all! 🇨🇦♥️🇺🇸🙏🏻🙏🏾🙏🏻👏🏻👏🏽👏🏻🥴
This happened because these idiots don't listen to their CB radio. They were surely warned about this pileup, but they didn't hear the warning, because they were too busy listening to Sirius radio or talking on the phone. These conditions call for extra attention. As matter of fact, they should've been parked and not driving. The only reason why you can be driving in these conditions, is if you're seeking a safe place to park, like a truck stop (with food and showers) or a hotel.
When the weather got bad I just pulled off the road told my manager that delivery is not going to be on time. I'm not going to die for some company that'll have me replaced in 10 minutes
The results of driving to fast in bad conditions. I’ve been all over this country as a truck drive and I’ve driven in every weather condition you can imagine and I never once had an accident, but that’s because I slowed down in conditions like this. As a driver if I knew I was going to encounter conditions like this I’d run like hell until I got into conditions like this then I could slow way down, take my time and still get my load delivered on time and undamaged.
From 1995 to 1997 Interstate 80 in Wyoming was my second home. During this time I drove hundreds of miles across there. I hauled steel case office furniture from Michigan to California and produce back. I drove for ETV coopersville Mi. And snow and wind was never really a problem. Sure the snow was bad sometimes. Never had any problems with the wind. But drivers would communicate about the weather. But never in two years and thousands of miles covered across Wyoming 80 was there traffic accidents, pile ups like this. And these accidents are becoming more popular in the United States.
Oh yeah I just noticed that. I think spell check changed the word. I didn’t notice. I’m in HVACR. And sometimes I get texts in the middle of the night when I’m on call. After 1800. And I replied to this text about no heat. I texted back and told her to switch her thermostat to emergency heat. This will give me time to get to her house. But the text message went through as. “ switch to thermo undress and I will be there in 30 minutes” She replied. “ okay so this service call will not cost me anything”. I replied. “Oh crap spell check sorry”
I have driven Northern Ontario roads for 45 years...and the most important thing you can have is the common sense to say "I'm waiting until this clears up"
In weather like that, I find a nice place to park and wait it out. The customer , and dispatch can be as angry as they want I don't care. I will stay safe and alive and the load might be late, but late is better than not at all like with some of these.
my first winter driving OTR, i was heading WB in weather like this. i hit a stretch of road called "the three sisters". you wouldn't think it was possible to leave a hickey on the seat. but i think i did that nite.
My sister is a commercial driver in the Midwest. If weather like this hits she parks the vehicle. I’m glad she does it’s too dangerous! And I would like my sister to live!
Something a mechanic friend told me when light emitting diode lights became the rage., you will see many more truck accidents on the highway because LED lights can’t melt snow build up during storms and therefore cannot be seen. This was 20 yrs back.
Very nasty, but avoidable. Imagine if you were driving at a sensible speed, managed to stop safely, and feel like a sitting duck with these careless drivers bearing down on you knowing they couldn't stop in time.
Exactly what I was thinking. Almost like a GPS system should tell drivers "major crash ahead take this off ramp for safety". But then again, as a truck driver myself most of these people that drive a semi now are NOT from this country. People feel safe in their own car when they pay 50k plus for them, but dont realize that they cant stop at 55 on an icy road. Even truck drivers that are well seasoned of say "20+ years" that never wrecked gloat and pat themselves on the back since they never do no wrong and know ALL the rules of the road, just go barreling past me in a snow storm cannot stop the beast they created going that speed when they MUST STOP from what they cant see ahead of them. Total carnage unfolds, and it somehow is NEVER their fault on why they collided into a stream of piled up vehicles in the roadway and ditch. I am 39 and have been driving since I was 24, and I am almost done with this. The lack of carelessness on everyones part just makes it so unworthy of what could possibly happen. I went from loving my career to hating it because of politics and just dumb people that dont understand that its terrible weather and you HAVE TO SLOW DOWN! A pileup costs lives and hours of your time, also possible harm to you and your vehicle, and to save what? 15 minutes if it didnt happen?
In weather like that you shouldn’t even be on the road, Ive been driving for 6 years and any dispatcher who tells you to keep driving in that needs to be fired
Yes that's a good lesson to learn early on in the career. It took me a lot of years before I was willing to swallow my pride and say I'm not going out there, loads going to be late
As a truck driver. Truckers go wayyy too fast for their own good. No wonder some attorneys have an entire business dedicated to lawsuits. SLOW DOWN, THE LOAD ISNT WORTH IT
Almost a white out in snowy icy conditions and they still drive at near full speed! .... What is that all about? Destruction and carnage because of what, wanna get there regardless of the weather huh?
They were in the process of closing it, in the other videos you can see the road closed barricades on the pavement and come all over. The first truck hit the state crew truck and then it started. It really does not matter what you try and do when people run this fast on slick roads with marginal visibility, in packs. This will happen every time and it does. Gk
Unfortunately this is what happens when people make the decision to drive through a blizzard rather than just shut it down for a night, or two, if required.
reminds me of the white out and the morning after, on highway 71 S, from Kansas City to Joplin. i stopped the night before when it got really bad. might of been a rookie, but i wasn't stupid driving in a white out at night. in the morning, roads were semi-'clear, and saw a lot of trucks in the median and right side of the road. it was "clear sailing" all the way to Joplin.
Seriously I dont understand this. Do truck drivers in the USA not have UHF radios? I can tell you here in Australia if there is an incident every truck driver in a 50km radius knows about it within a couple of minutes, where it is located and knows to slow down well before you arrive on the scene.
WITH ALL OF THE TECH WE HAVE ALL THE DIFFERENT WAYS TO OCCUPY THE TIME WHILE DRIVING IN THIS KIND OF WEATHER USE THE CB IF YOU DONY HOW ASK SOMEONE I ASSURE YOU WEBDID IT ON A REGULAR BACK IN THE DAY
I can't help but wonder, does anyone still use CB radios anymore ?? That was always the fastest way to get the word out on the road of severe weather conditions and accidents up ahead.
Soooo many commercial drivers driving recklessly in unsafe conditions. They drive too dang fast and don't allow enough stopping distance in weather like this. The regular public drivers are just as bad as well. Slow down, turn your dang lights on, and increase the distance between you and the vehicle in front of you.
The other half that no one is thinking about is even if you've done everything right and been able to stop, someone behind you won't. That's why I shut it down well before conditions are close to what I can handle.
Yep, I've come upon dozens of winter-time pile-ups in my trucking career. I always pull as far as I can onto the shoulder without going into the ditch. There was a wreck like this on I-25 Ft Collins ten years ago. The road was blocked. I slowly came to a stop without jack-knifing. As I was sitting there I saw a pack of twenty or so cars coming down the hill with two semi's. They were going way to fast. It was all in slow motion. They approached me and couldn't get stopped. Luckily, they all decided to head for the ditch rather than rear-end me at 40 mph. Ten cars and two semi's went into the ditch. I was lucky. No one got hurt, that was the good news. One of my friends got tangled up into a mass pile-up once. He still has neck problems from being hit from behind. In these wrecks, the best thing to do is pull as far onto the shoulder as you can get. Then look in your mirror. If no one is coming, get out and walk away. Too many people have been killed in these mass pile-ups. They can't really be stopped. They are a part of winter time driving. The good news is that they are rare, with maybe 2-3 happening per year in the USA. Basically, the odds are that you'll never be involved in one, unless you drive a truck for thirty years up north or in the Rockies. Then you might be involved in one once every ten years.
Its used in Europe on the trains and subways.....And posted signs along the highways will inform of accidents immediately... but we have cameras that monitor and Americans don't want to be watched lol...
@@jedidiah5131 seems like some kind of system to monitor a stoppage and for drivers to understand the system of either attempting to stop immediately or the need to be stopped in a given distance might help mitigate some damage in these accidents
Kind of like at a formula one or sports car race , waving yellow caution ahead , red flag stop the event. For transportation purposes if a stoppage is detected in a lane that lane needs to stop , if the freeway is blocked by a multiple car incident and detected everyone needs to come to a stop but not get hit from behind. The only way that would work is if traffic a mile or two behind got the signal and that line would grow as traffic stopped in a controlled manner versus a failure to control speed and a collision. Safety engineer could come up with something that could work
Drove on this road in the late nineties. Driving too fast for conditions and tailgating were common...when it got bad, finding a place to pull over was preferable...if you stopped along side of the road, you could get rear ended...saw lots of wrecks...all you could do is keep alot of space infront and slow down to maintain stopping distance then look for a place to safely pull over...lots of triples find the ditch!
Wyoming does have a lot of room for improvement when it comes to treating the roads. I saw a clear difference yesterday crossing into Utah from Evanston. Compact snow, chains required on the WY side, then wet with a little slush on the UT side, like night and day between the two states.
Seeing this, I really have no respect for this drivers. How in hell could they not see the rear of the crash? I drove professionally up North into Whitehorse YT twice a week for years. If you don't know when to slow down, you are a danger to others and yourself. With that being said, this is an example for not being a professional driver!
The problem is that these conditions between Cheyenne and Laramie happen 150 days out of the year. It's not like where you live. There's no way around it. It's like trying to get people to climb Mt. Everest when the weather is good. There is no good weather up there. People die, as they do in Wyoming. Colorado, Michigan, up-state New York. These kinds of things are normal. It won't change. Death is a part of life. Fact.
+skyylow there are pileups on both sides. They either couldnt get their vehicles through or they had just got on scene. I dont know about you, but I'm not putting my body in front of out of control vehicles for $10/hr
+Kille78 definitely. Not when big rigs are flying 55 and higher at zero visibility. No fucking way would I run up and try to motion them to stop with my body in those conditions. They wouldn't see it, for one. And I could die. After careful cost/benefit analysis, I will watch this unstoppable calamity unfold, reticent in the knowledge that these guys should slow down in such weather, or rather, their employers should make it feasible for them to do so.
Hello, My name is Barbara I'm a french journalist doing a documentary about the I80 for french tv. For this documentary, I'm looking for people who where there when this massive accident unfortunatly happen. We would like to have witnesses who would agree to grant us an interview. My goal in interviewing the people present on site is to make drivers aware of how dangerous the roads can be and how be careful with have to be. It is important to talk about this kind of accident and by being there, your words will be stronger and will be worth more than all the images. What do you think ? Thank you so much, Barbara
I agree and I may be able to find others on Facebook that were in that. I even have a friend who is the big wig for that area or the surrounding area. I will call him and get back with you.
Wouldn’t matter, they’d think it’s on the other side. It’s mostly drivers who drove too fast for conditions because “They got it”. I definitely would drive slower in those conditions. Or not drive at all.
Its better to park it because weather and road conditions will cause your load to be late anyway. During winter months I 90, I 80, I 70 avoid these interstates if you can. Sometimes I 40.
I remember this. We were pretty much stuck inside for a couple of days. Then you got these idiots who think since they have 4WD or in a tractor trailer they can do anything. smh Those high wind advisories are there for a reason.
"I have a great idea! Let me drive faster than I can reasonably brake within my range of vision in an 80,000lb semi on a slicker-than-snot-on-a-doorknob surface! What could possibly go wrong?!?!?!?
Guys you think you could step it up a bit. That is about the most casual emergency responder walk ever. That walk is like a underpaid laborer coming back from his morning break.
@@LilCrazy Buy one that plugs into either a USB or cigarette lighter then stick it on the dash. Loads of people still use them and you should encourage others to use them also.
This should be a movie. Stuff like this. The nightmare of oncoming cars in a quite out. All over the country. Show people getting squished in their cars, plowed off the road, cracking their heads on ice as they walk, sliding down and cars sliding into them as they run off the road.
This shows the amazing stupidity of truck drivers --- trying to "beat the deadline" in hauling instead of staying OFF the highways until the weather clears enough to drive safely. Results of things like this: Everyone's insurance premiums get jacked up way beyond what they should be.
+Kyle Barton Because most of the truckers these days are just steering wheel holders and they either don't have a cb or they dont have it turned on. It is very frustrating.
exactly why I have a radio, so just incase something like this, but then I have to hope someone who sees something like this has a CB and says something...
I drove semi‘s across wyoming many times, and and I do know when it comes to weather in wyoming. IT‘S VERY UNPREDICABLE IN JUST IN JUST A FEW MILES SOME TIME. I‘VE SEEN IT IN WYOMING ALL WITH 25 MILES IT WAS NICE THEN YOU HIT RAIN THEN RUN INTO A NASTY BLIZZERED AND ALOT OF ICE AND SNOW. I don‘t trust wyoming weather because it does change in a short distance and very unpredictable. And accidents I‘ve seen my share over the years. So the one accident in this video is no surprise to me in wyoming. NOBODY WANTS A ACCIDENT BUT THERE IS NOTHING ANYBODY CAN DO WHEN THEY HAPPEN
I read someplace and fully agree that in cases like this those fusee highway flares are invaluable, but someone needs to head "downstream" waving one to warn incoming and place many more downstream (or upstream however you think of incoming) as far as possible. The problem is (a) finding people who carry them, (b) getting them to contribute them, (c)and finding someone couragous enough to risk running into the fog to put them out and maintain them. Limited visiblity means slow the hell down, way damn down!!!!!!!!
Wondering why the emergency responders didn't do that. I see that all the time. They should have driven down the road a mile or two and set off some flairs. Instead, they all stand around watching the pile-up get worse.
