Injuries on I-16 in GA after semi rear ends fire truck

[BillKaneEMT]

http://www.13wmaz.com/rss/article/186609/153/Three-Macon-Bibb-Firefighters-Injured-in-I-16E-Accidents?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wmaz%2Flocal+%2813WMAZ.com+Local+News%29

I'd advise people to always remain alert when responding to accident scenes but I'm sure these guys were paying attention. I doubt you'd get much warning at highway speeds. Stay safe folks.

[Kiwiology]

Best road traffic accident I've seen was a guy who got wasted on painkillers and drove into an Indy fire truck ...

It's a good thing I stay home when I get wasted on painkillers ...

[BillKaneEMT]

I spent 4 years driving over the road tractor trailer rigs in the lower 48, Canada and Mexico. Seen some really bad ones and some that turned out fairly hilarious. I drove through Dallas/Ft. Worth during an ice storm once and it was like a demolition derby. LEOs and EMS stopped responding unless it was a serious injury case simply because there were too many to deal with. I also saw a young kid in a brand new sports car hit a rig while driving at least a hundred miles an hour in Kentucky. Big rig trailers have a DOT bumper to prevent cars from being driven under the trailers and getting caught in a rear end collision but this was a really low slung car. The car hit the bottom of the bumper an inch or so above the hood and sheared it in half like a sardine can. I expect people in cars to make bad decisions while driving but I have absolutely no tolerance for a professional who does so. If you're driving an 80,000 pound vehicle at highway speeds for a living it's your responsibility to compensate for silly kids (and adults) who don't have the experience or training to realize exactly how dangerous tons of metal moving at high speeds can be.

Let me provide an example. Every time you go down a mountain you have to be careful about your brakes. Not just the possibility of burning them out though. State troopers will often take radar toward the end of long downgrades, it's a good place to get tickets. People will speed down mountains racing to pass the trucks in the right lane who are endeavouring to keep their brakes cool and inevitably the car's radar detectors will go off, usually after the trooper has their speed in any case. The car will automatically swerve into the right lane and slam on their brakes. It sucks but it's one of the things you must plan for so you can compensate if you're a professional. There are a lot of CDL-A drivers on the road right now who damn well ought to be off it. Drives me nuts. As for the morons who get jacked up on meth so they can drive for 72 hours at a stretch.... ugh. It gives the profession a bad name and even though I'm no longer a truck driver it makes me see red.

edit: caps:/

Edited June 28, 2012 by BillKaneEMT