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DANGEROUS ROADS * Canada - RCMP probe rocks tossed at trucks
Manitoba,CAN -CBC News -September 9, 2010: -- At least one Manitoba trucking company has begun altering one of its routes due to large rocks being hurled at company vehicles along a stretch of highway in the Interlake region... RCMP confirmed Thursday that they have launched an investigation into the incidents, which are taking place late at night along Highway 68... "I think it's a horrible thing for people to be doing," said Bob Dolyniuk, executive director of the Manitoba Trucking Association... "It's obviously very dangerous. People have been killed by rocks thrown at trucks," he said... The 208 kilometre-long Highway 68 runs in an east-west direction through the Interlake region, according to the province. The highway is especially important to farmers in the area to transport grain to inland terminals, the province said... The province has been repairing stretches of the road in recent years... RCMP have not said if they have identified any suspects... (Province of Manitoba: This provincial highways map marks out construction being done on Highway 68. Truckers using the route are reporting large rocks being tossed at their vehicles)* Canada - Shattered Life. A senseless act leaves driver shell-shocked
Belleville,ONT,CAN -Truck News, by Adam Ledlow -Sept 2010: -- It's a drizzling, cold afternoon in December and I'm standing in the foyer of the 10-Acre Truck Stop in Belleville, bracing myself for what I'm about to see. I'm here to meet a truck driver who has been in an accident, which usually wouldn't faze me, but the words "rock in the face" have me feeling a bit skittish. When the meeting was arranged, all I was told by the driver, Lars Christensen, was that he's a "pretty big guy"... But given the nature of the accident, my gut tells me his size isn't what I'll be noticing... A few drivers pass by until I get bored and start making conversation with a guy on his way out. We shoot the breeze for a few minutes until I see a driver come in from the rain that I immediately recognize as Christensen. It's not because his face is pockmarked or disfigured from glass and debris - it isn't, with only a small cut under his right eye where a piece of glass pushed itself out the night before. It's not even because of his sheer physical size. His eyes were the giveaway; pained and tired from 11 months of physical and mental recovery since the accident... His ordeal started in the early evening of Jan. 31, 2006, when Christensen was heading back from a run in Houston, Texas. He was driving under an overpass 38 miles into Louisiana when an as-yet unidentified object came smashing through his windshield, hitting him square in his bespectacled face..."It was like an explosion went off inside my truck. I knew it wasn't the tires because nothing went wrong with my steering - and then I couldn't see," said Christensen in an interview with Truck News.
With his vision foggy, 25 years of driving experience kicked in and he knew he had to pull over as quickly as possible. Easing off the fuel and hoping no one was beside him, Christensen pulled the wheel to the right until he felt the shoulder and stopped. He vaguely remembers picking up his cell phone and dialing 9-1-1... (Photos by Adam Ledlow: 1) -above - WILLING TO FORGIVE: Truck driver Lars Christensen says he's ready to forgive the teenagers who stole his livelihood - 2) -below- CONCRETE MISSILES: A piece of concrete is lodged in the windshield of Christensen's truck. He says if it wasn't rotten concrete, it would probably have killed him)
Labels: dangerous roads, truckers' stories
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