We beg and we beg for better training standards for truck drivers .... look at what the trainee was doing .... LOOK AT WHERE THE TRAINER WAS ..... look at even more dead people .... because ... THEY WON'T LISTEN TO US.
Sorry peeps .... just a little out of sorts about this one .... Please call your reps and help SAFE TRUCK DRIVERS make Americas highways safer. We need higher standards for who can be a driver and higher standards for who can train them. It is our families that are dieing out on the highways. This is not a game. Real people die.
It's time big business and politicians realize this. Please. I beg you. Tell your Representatives today that the truck drivers you know want safer highways for all of America. The story follows. Thanks for letting me vent.. Geuss it's one of those days.
A semi tractor-trailer driver was killed Friday in a fiery wreck that shut down the eastbound lanes of Interstate 80 between Laramie and Cheyenne for more than seven hours.
Jerry Roberts, 48, of Omaha, Neb., a driver for Fremont Contract Carriers Inc. (FCC), was pronounced dead at the scene of a wreck involving two tractor-trailers that took place at 5:40 a.m. near milepost 335 on I-80, according to the Wyoming Highway Patrol (WHP).
In addition to the Roberts, troopers found in the cab the remains of a dog that they believe belonged to him.
The wreck forced the WHP to close eastbound I-80 to commercial vehicles from 5:50 a.m. to about 2 p.m.
Light vehicles were diverted to Happy Jack Road to get to Cheyenne.
No hazardous materials were spilled, but the eastbound lanes were littered with debris and cargo, Trooper Troy Marrs said.
While the passing lane was opened to traffic, the driving lane remained closed at press time so the Wyoming Department of Transportation could remove the larger pieces of debris with heavy equipment.
Welton J. Seawright, 51, of Melvindale, Mich., an inexperienced CRST Trucking driver who was disoriented and driving too slow, caused the wreck, Marrs said.
Hes a brand new driver; he had only been driving a truck for three weeks, he said. He got disoriented in the dark, going up and down the hills, and his truck was bogging down.
Marrs said Seawright thought he was driving up an incline when he wasnt, which is why he was in second gear and traveling at 5 mph in the driving lane even though the highway was dry and visibility was clear.
Roberts came upon the CRST tractor-trailer and rear-ended it at 65-75 mph.
It appeared he applied brakes shortly before impact, Marrs said.
Shortly after the collision, the FCC semi exploded and caught fire.
The tractor was fully engulfed, Marrs said.
He couldnt say if the explosion took place upon impact or after the FCC tractor-trailer came to rest.
We know there was an explosion very shortly after impact, Marrs said.
Both tractor-trailers came to rest in the driving lane of eastbound I-80 near the Buford exit.
The only extensive damage the CRST truck sustained was to its trailer, Marrs said.
Seawright complained of neck pain and was transported by ambulance to Ivinson Memorial Hospital, where he was treated and released.
His instructor, Otis B. Willson, 40, of Anton, Mich., was asleep in the cab at the time of the wreck and was uninjured, Marrs said.
The Laramie Fire Department, Laramie County Fire District One, District 10, F. E. Warren and the Vedauwoo, Little Laramie and Centennial Valley volunteer fire departments responded to the semi fire.
The city of Laramie also contributed a water tanker.
Marrs said the WHP seized and impounded the CRST tractor-trailer because the company refused to allow troopers access to the black-box recorder in the cab.
The only two ways we can read that are either by a court order, in the form of a search warrant or subpoena, or by the company or vehicle owner giving us permission, Marrs said. It will be held until we can get a court order to seize that information.
A WHP press release says upon completion of the investigation, all information will be turned over to the Albany County Attorneys Office for the filing of any criminal charges.
