I don't know if they still do this but twenty years ago when I lived
in the Colorado rockies there was a weigh station on I-70 at the town
of Idaho Springs. They asked all the truckers who were headed west if
they had ever driven over that section of highway before. From Idaho
Springs it is a loooong uphill grade to the Eisenhour Tunnel and then
an even loooooooonger very steep down hill grade on the other side
till you get down to Silver Plume. If a trucker had not been that way
before he was required to park his rig and go inside and watch a video
explaining how to drive on that stretch of road and handle the grades
before he was premitted to leave.


pyotr filipivich wrote:

Ignoramus28705 on Sun, 04 Mar
2012 14:02:21 -0600 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

They might... if you have not picked up too much speed before you
realize you are in deep doo-doo and you apply them solidly in one
emergency stop.

OK, I think that I get the picture.

I now know one honest mobile truck mechanic (!), he will look and
adjust all my brakes, making whatever repairs may be necessary.

i

And then remember, "You go down a hill slow, a lot. You go down
fast - once." If you are going "over a hill" (a pass) stop at the
top, check brakes, load, stretch legs, then do not get in a hurry to
get down the hill. Better to "creep down the hill" thinking you could
shift up a gear and make it, than to arrive at the bottom wishing you
hadn't, and wind up on the six o clock news.

In CT there were two fairly recent incidents of trucks loosing brakes on
Avon mountain (not very big or steep really). One incident was a large
dump truck the ended up plowing into cars stopped at the traffic light
at the bottom killing a number of people. The second was a flatbed semi
with a load of asphalt shingles, on this one the driver somehow managed
to weave through traffic on the opposite side of the road, get through
the intersection at the bottom, over a hundred yards of grass or so and
take out the corner of a building without hitting anyone. The driver got
a broken leg if I recall but that was the only injury. Last I recall
they were widening the road and building a runaway truck ramp.