YouTuber captures semitrailer speeding by cars before deadly crash, fire in Colorado
CBS News,
by
Staff
Original Article
Posted By: happywarrior,
4/27/2019 9:54:05 AM
LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- Video appears to show a semitrailer speeding down the shoulder of eastbound Interstate 70 in Colorado before a massive crash and fire Thursday afternoon. The crash occurred near the Denver West exit in Lakewood. At least one person was killed. Several were injured. The Lakewood Police Department said the crash began when a semitrailer traveling at a high rate of speed on the eastbound side of the highway collided with other vehicles, starting a chain reaction and fire. An estimated 12 passenger vehicles and three semitrailers were involved in the crash. The video, from Burger Planet on
Reply 1 - Posted by:
FLCracker 4/27/2019 10:14:57 AM (No. 70002)
This sounds very similar to the crash that almost killed comedian Tracy Morgan. In that case, it turned out to be the driver´s fault.
From the NTSB report for the Morgan crash:
The driver of the Walmart Transportation LLC truck was fatigued due to his failure to obtain sleep before reporting for duty, resulting in acute sleep loss and excessive time awake.
Due to his fatigued condition, the Walmart Transportation LLC truck driver had a delayed response to slowed traffic in an active work zone.
9 people like this.
We need AI/autonomous driving ... thousands and thousands of people on our highways die senselessly like this. :( RIP.
7 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Laotzu 4/27/2019 10:32:02 AM (No. 69984)
#thanksobabma
15 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
bpl40 4/27/2019 10:42:38 AM (No. 69996)
I suppose someone legally in this country could also do this. But goes to further prove the President´s point.
14 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 4/27/2019 10:49:08 AM (No. 70008)
The thing about having to make a sudden stop in a big rig is the driver suddenly is now at the wheel of a heavy high speed projectile. They cannot stop fast, and its easy to lose control. Very likely the driver screwed up or somebody cut him off. Could be mechanical failure too. Wait and see what the findings of the investigation turn out to be.
14 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Scrubber 4/27/2019 10:56:22 AM (No. 69985)
Sounds to me like yet another case of "professional driver" accident.
9 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
mollyb0122 4/27/2019 11:04:51 AM (No. 69994)
What is his name?
12 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Strike3 4/27/2019 11:08:53 AM (No. 70005)
Riding down the shoulder means that his brakes were gone.
20 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
HotRod 4/27/2019 11:11:59 AM (No. 70007)
We had far fewer deaths and injuries when trains carried the long-distance freight. Unfortunately, too many people were impatient and unwilling to wait a few minutes for a train to pass a crossing, so now we have thousands of these big trucks on the road creating significant congestion.
We consume far, far more fuel using trucks than trains, since trains can carry many truckloads of freight.
There will always be trucks, since trains can´t go everywhere, but where trains can go they are much more efficient. Of course, the trucking industry would fight any attempt to introduce modern rail systems.
20 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Sam1 4/27/2019 11:15:02 AM (No. 70009)
#7..The driver," Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos, 23, of Texas was in the country legally and possessed a green card."
9 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
kono 4/27/2019 11:25:53 AM (No. 70003)
#8 gives the most likely possibility for truckers who are trying to follow the rules and be safe. But at least one time a week at the bottom of a hill in a place where traffic grinds to a halt every day during the evening commute, I´ll be stuck in the bumper-to-bumper backup while vehicle after vehicle speeds by on the shoulder trying to skip the backup. And as foolish as that is for cars, sometimes there is a truck in the stream of shoulder-speeding idiots.
9 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
kono 4/27/2019 11:27:54 AM (No. 69990)
(And the trucks I´m referring to are shortcut-seekers, not runaways...)
6 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
DVC 4/27/2019 11:39:24 AM (No. 69995)
#2, extremely bad idea.
13 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
FleetUSA 4/27/2019 11:42:21 AM (No. 69988)
Illegal alien? Pothead? All of the above?
7 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
NorthernDog 4/27/2019 11:57:21 AM (No. 69989)
There´s another video of a trucker driving recklessly 5 miles before the accident occurred. He was speeding, abruptly changing lanes, and ignoring the signs warning of the steep grade. They need to determine if it´s the same truck.
10 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
mc squared 4/27/2019 12:12:43 PM (No. 69983)
So many experts - so few facts.
17 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
bldrrepub 4/27/2019 12:28:24 PM (No. 69998)
I drive this section of I-70 a couple of times a week. This section is not flat. There´s still a substantial grade to the road.
There´s still lots to be learned here, let´s not jump to conclusions.
15 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Safari Man 4/27/2019 1:28:03 PM (No. 69997)
If my brakes were gone, I would have been laying on the horn and looking for a place to crash where nobody else would get hurt.
14 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
DVC 4/27/2019 1:43:11 PM (No. 70001)
I had to take my car and the car I was towing off the road on the Monteagle downgrade, #14, when the road was rain slick and the towing car, without "trailer brake" started to go unstable, push me off the road.Had to decide to intentionally take it off under partial control.
Very unpleasant, but managed to get the mess stopped, jacknifed and JUST touching the guardrail after a long slide through soft muddy ground. Broken towbar, slight body damage, best possible outcome, IMO.
But this was flat, no gravity pushing - either stuck throttle (take it out of gear, no drive immediately, the engine will overrev but so what?) or brakes gone- bad because diesels without a jake brake have near zero engine braking effect.
I was warned that when we started letting Mexican semis run in the USA that they were widely unsafe and would be causing large numbers of accidents.
Is this a Mexican semi and Mexican driver? The name is Mexican sounding. Illegal or legal, truck legal or illegal?
18 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
TrueBlueWfan 4/27/2019 1:47:22 PM (No. 69987)
Near the end of the video, a supposed newscaster´s voiceover describes the truck as having run into the bridge. What I think happened is this idiot truck driver decided to speed around traffic on the shoulder without realizing that the shoulder narrows under the overpass. Either he hit the bridge supports or tried to correct and swerved into the right lane, hitting multiple cars & trucks. Sounds like the latter. No excuses - this was dangerous behavior and should be prosecuted.
9 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
Janylou 4/27/2019 2:02:20 PM (No. 70006)
Nothing makes me madder than to be driving I-40 where there are a lot of semis and one never fails to move over into my lane to pass another semi just as I approach and always on a hill.
12 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
Philipsonh 4/27/2019 2:14:25 PM (No. 70004)
To Reply #9
You are correct. Each railcar holds the equivalent of two normal trailers. I have
seen trains with 150+ units being pulled by one locomotive, which is the equivalent of 300+ tractor trailers.( Just this past week, in fact ).
21 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
DVC 4/27/2019 3:15:05 PM (No. 69986)
#23, but rail is very close to a monopoly in many areas and they charge two arms and three legs to transport since there is often zero competition, except trucks. Impossible to start up a railroad, cannot get the right of way to run lines, and too expensive. Union Pacific pretty much owns everything in the west, and shockingly, Canadian National Railway owns huge swaths of RR in midwest and southeast US. KC Southern has a good chunk in the midwest, and there could be some overlap with Union Pac in this region. Norfolk Southern is big on the east coast. Not a lot of overlap, often no choice of which rail shipper between a set of cities.
A friend was responsible for buying coal from Wyoming for KC powerplants. He said that the Union Pacific was totally in control, and NOTHING could lower their prices. The power company paid huge $$ for custom, lightweight aluminum hopper cars to get more coal per train, since there are total track weight limits per car. Steel cars are heavier, so less coal per car. RR accepted the shipper-owned cars, but raised their prices so that the cost per ton of coal remained the same, no $ savings by getting more tons of coal moved over the exact same tracks, with the exact same crew, not one bit more effort, but prices raise....because they can. And there are plenty of train wrecks, too.
10 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
ginadee 4/27/2019 8:20:34 PM (No. 69992)
There are truck drivers who follow the rules. There are also ´hot dog´ truck drivers who don´t.
There are auto drivers who follow the rules.
There are also ´hot dog´ auto drivers who
don´t.
It´s all about the individual driver. You never can be too sure about who is behind the wheel of either vehicle.
Therefore, stay awake and alert at all times when you are driving and remember to fasten up those pesky seat belts. It could save your life.
8 people like this.
If as #10 says the driver was 23, there lies the problem.
1 person likes this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
ladydawgfan 4/28/2019 6:04:30 AM (No. 69991)
This is why I have both front and rear dash cams in my car. You never know what you will catch and it might make the difference in fault if you are in an accident.
Individual stories and recollections may vary given stress and viewpoint of the incident, but live video doesn´t lie, especially if it is stamped wth the date, time and speed of the camera operator, along with location and direction of travel. All of these are automatically embedded in the video from my cameras and available for download via bluetooth to my phone.
I paid about $150 for this little bit of added security for my car.
2 people like this.
Below, you will find ...
Most Recent Articles posted by "happywarrior"
and
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)