Semi Overturned Today on Hwy 299
A flagman holds up a stop sign as traffic is directed around the accident scene earlier today. [Photo provided by a reader]
The lumber was scattered across the roadway and the eastbound lane was blocked with the truck on its right side.
As of 6 p.m., Caltrans QuickMap still indicates that traffic is moving slowly through the area.
The CHP page reports no one was injured.
A semi lays on its side surrounded by lumber as crews work to get traffic through the area. [Photo provided by a reader]
Please remember that information gathered from initial reports is subject to revision as more facts become available.
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80% of rigs are speeding, 75% of rigs are operated dangerously, and, rig wrecks are getting WAY too common!
I’m writing to The Governor’s Office, to ask that rig safety, and legal rig operation will be subject to increased enforcement.
I hope you join me, and, meanwhile, beware and be wary, the operators of these machines appear to be bent upon killing someone!
Professional drivers should operate safely, and within the law! There is no reason to speed or defer maintenance!
Your third paragraph is an out and out falsehood. No one who drives a truck for a living is “bent on killing someone.” That’a hysterical knee jerk reaction to a subject that you obviously know very little about.
Do you actually know any truck drivers well enough to make such a disparaging remark about them?
I commend your interest in safety but please don’t smear good honest working people with such a broad brush.
The speed limit for big rigs is 55MPH. Have you EVER seen a truck going that speed?
Those rigs go too fast on every road they travel, the law is seldom enforced. They all have working speedometers (presumably) so I agree with Jesus…willful disregard of speed limits and safety is tantamount to being “hell bent” on killing people.
“The speed limit for big rigs is 55MPH. Have you EVER seen a truck going that speed?
…
willful disregard of speed limits and safety is tantamount to being “hell bent” on killing people.”
Nobody wants to be behind a slow truck and I often see life threatening risks taken to get in front of the truck. THOSE are the people with little regard for others safety.
California is one of only a handful of States that even has split speed limits. And the only one I know of that is restricted to 55 across the board.
Our split limits are mostly arbitrary in nature; not engineered limitations of our roads.
The TRUCK SPEED LIMIT of 45 MPH going southbound 101 over Rattlesnake summit on the DOWNHILL grade is in no way arbitrary…
It IS because MANY lumber trucks have dumped their loads…
Many truckers do just blow off speed limits in general, I see it all the time on Hwy 101
If I had a dollar every time a 4wheeler did something stupid dangerous to get around me leading into rattlesnake, and coming off of rattlesnake I’d be rich.
I-5 has 400 miles of arbitrary 55mph truck limit. 101 has plenty of miles that are also arbitrarily set at 55 for trucks.
Are you saying that trucks are the only vehicles that speed? Have you noticed the cars and pickups that do 70+ mph on local roads.
With truck driving schools pumping out inexperienced drivers the quality of the drivers has diminished severely,I speak from experience,I am a retired Haz. Mat. driver.I see the quality of the drivers every time the freeway closes.
Them damn 4wheelers ain’t no angels either. Them rigs you refer to end up in the ditch or on their side because you 4wheelers don’t respect our space we need to operate professionaly.
Peace/out buttercup
you truck driver think you own the road and eveyone is subject to your wishes. if truck drivers had one ounce of respect toward other drivers everything would better
“80% of rigs are speeding, 75% of rigs are operated dangerously, and, rig wrecks are getting WAY too common!”
Can you link to your sources please?
Link to source? all ya have to do is drive I5 from Dunsmuir to Redding,that’s all the source you need.
Thank you for your scientific input.
Don’t really need scientific input if you drive I-5 at all,just observation skills
“50% of information on the Internet is false.”
-Abraham Lincoln
Lol – really I did lol.
CLASSIC!
Where do you get your data? I believe that truckers are the safeest drivers.
Ha,Ha,HA
Just call Gavin 916-445-2841, good luck Mr. Chris kringle?
You might want to call upon those who regulate the industry. It is about keeping costs down for transport and time lines. Research through OSHA regulations before mouthing off.
If you want excuses, impugn truckers…
A word problem:
Rig A is Northbound on I-5, doing 63 mph. The speed limit for rigs is 55. Rig A suddenly pulls out to pass Rig B, who is only doing 62mph. 47 other vehicles have to wait 3 miles until rig A completes his pass.
Why?
A) Doesn’t matter, both rigs are speeding because truckers are paid “by the mile”…
B) The driver of Rig A took more Methamphetamine that morning.
C) The driver of Rig A hates all those people in “4X4’s and wants to slow them down.
D) All truck drivers think that the speed limit for rigs is 65.
Another:
Rig A is hauling North on 101 42 miles South of Salinas. He is going 67mph and approaching Rig B, which is traveling 64 mph. Mr Smith is driving his 4×4 65mph and passing Rig A in the left lane. Rig A suddenly changes lanes toward Mr Smith, driving him into the center divide.
Why?
A) It doesn’t matter, both rigs are speeding.
B) It doesn’t matter, the driver of rig A took more Methamphetamine than Mr Smith, so he has the right of way.
C) The driver of Rig A is paid “by the mile” and needs to pay his second mortgage payment.
D) It doesn’t matter because there is no enforcement South of Salinas anyway, and even though Mr Smith takes a photo of the rig and reports the incident, nothing will be done.
One more:
Rig A is hauling East, at 69 mph, out “The 10” 32 miles West of Blythe, and encounters Rig B, doing 66 mph, uphill with his flashers on. The speed limit is 55mph. Rig A pulls out to pass, blocking 57 other vehicles for 6 miles, while he attempts to pass, while going uphill. Rig B is flat, so Rig A never catches up and has to go back to the lane he started in.
Why?
A) Doesn’t matter, both rigs are speeding.
B) Doesn’t matter, rig drivers hate everyone else on the road.
C) Both rig drivers used the same amount of Amphetamine that morning.
D) Rigs have to speed, because Rig Drivers are paid by the mile.
I got a million of them, and, I drive 30,000 miles per year. Rigs are WAY less than the safest vehicles on the road, and they get worse every day.
Great fictional story. Or what the media calls news (no basis in fact). When you speak of operating cost, you need to learn about the diesel emissions regulations that have vexed the California trucking industry. A little education would serve you well. Possibly you failed to notice that ALL truck drivers are subject to drug testing. If you think it’s easy to own a truck, try it. IF you can pass the drug test.
In observations on the road, I have found that the vast majority of Humboldt county car drivers are woefully unqualified to operate a car. I have personally had two different drivers in Eureka turn left in front of me from the right lane with no turn signal. This seems to be an epidemic in Humboldt county where no one even knows what the little lever on the left side of the steering wheel is for. I actually applaud the rare driver that uses a signal.
Add to that, pot smoking and cell phones, and its a miracle you’re not all dead.
Get some facts and stay safe.
They give out driver’s licenses like candy on Halloween.
They are the default “Toy Surprise” in each & every, Box, Bag or WTH ever it comes in, of Cracker Jack snack mix!!!
You must be talking about truck driving school “graduates”,watching a driving test at a DMV once I saw one applicant hit another truck with his trailer in the lot,still got a license then got cut lose out on the road.
I agree cc, Chris could use some factual thinking and not just imaginary scenarios. Maybe about gearing, load weight, speed, incline deviations and dealing with inconsiderate four wheel operators.
Totally agree. People in cars in this County are mostly incompetent.
saving transportation cost… that is funny. truckers are driving faster than legal to make more money faster. zero saving are passed on, what a bald faced lie
I had always thought big rig truck drivers were professionals and good safe truck drivers, The last few years seems like their drivings gone down hill: speeding, flopping over, spilling cargo and diesel all over 299. Don’t drivers get training anymore on how to drive big trucks? Don’t they value their own lives and the lives of those they share the road with? Do the trucking companies have some deal with the highway patrol, police, sheriffs, so they are not ticketed? A mighty rig on a mountain road is a dangerous weapon unless driven with good judgement and skillfull handling.
“A mighty rig on a mountain road is a dangerous weapon unless driven with good judgement and skillfull handling.”
They should have never opened up 299 to STAA traffic.
Absolutely. The Buckhorn “improvements ” have allowed a bunch of drivers on 299 that never should have left I5.
That is the case for every motor vehicle! Write your letter, it will do nothing. All the same as your psychotic standpoint….
I don’t know why the accident happened, I am just glad that the driver was no injuried.
Hey! I have been alerted by truckers, more thatn once, with a simple hand gesture thru the window their window, as I was passing, that Smokey the Bear was just around the corner, saving me speeding tickets…hats off to them!
There’s no Smokey The Bear. It’s just Smokey Bear. Like it’s not Santa the Claus or Easter the Bunny. I get what you’re saying, like Smokey and The Bandit, but I wanted to make that clear that Smokey the Bear doesn’t exist and doesn’t give out speeding tickets.
Do you think if the trucks had better tires specifically for winding mountain roads these accidents might be able to be prevented.
Yes, some stickier rubber, maybe with rubber road cement…
Meanwhile, drive 55, act like you give a damn, and, damn, heck yes, Humboldt County drivers, Mendocino County Drivers, and everyone from Oregon, all drive like they’re ON DRUGS! Or go to Lake County, where everyone is drunk!
The point here is, if you dump your load, you should lose your license. And your job. And if you dump crushed cars in Richardson Grove because you were going 30mph over the limit, heck, it’s always cause the truck broke…
If you drive your rig 62 mph, you are speeding. Be cognizant. Stay alive, and don’t kill anybody. Thanks so much!
I’ve followed a truck loaded with lumber driving through the Richardson Grove section of 101. Although going less than the speed limit (I think it is 35 there) I watched the trucks load start shift at the top, leaning out some on each curve, back and forth, until finally the straps had obviously loosened and the load simply leaned more and more towards the right. I don’t know if he could see the shift but I think he could feel it as he kept trying to find a pull out he could use. By that time we were crawling. When he finally found one and I passed him, the all the layers were listing 6 feet or more off to one side.
It left an impression with me so that I hang back when any lumber is stacked high on a tractor trailer and the road has curves. I think it must a type of load prone to shifting and making a mistake on tying it down is frequently responsible for over turning.