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Winter Accident PHOTO'S, Feel Free to add your Winter Pic's
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Photo's 50 car pileup Erie, PA
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Backups on Penn Pike at Brickerville MP270 after ice missile got a tanker truck - NY Times pic
A trucker found his cab perched on a bridge guardrail after a crash on PennDOT managed I-90
PA/I-78 - backups like this make it tough for the snow plows to operate
SAFETY
Ice missiles the cause of several big wrecks and huge backups in PA
Truck ice missiles were the cause of several of the worst wrecks in the nasty winter storms in Pennsylvania this week - great lumps of ice shooting off the roofs of tractor-trailers. Unlike the incompetently managed PennDOT highways the pavement of the Pennsylvania Turnpike was kept clear by early salting and quick and repeated plowing. But that didn't protect it from ice missile attack.
Around 10am Friday near the US322 overbridge (MP270) near Brickerville in Lancaster County a lump of ice flew off the roof of a westbound tractor trailer and hit the windshield of an eastbound tanker truck causing the driver to lose control and roll over, according to a Turnpike spokesman. The tanker truck was carrying a common petroleum liquid - xylene, a flammable solvent and feedstock for the manufacture of polymers.
The wrecked tanker didn't leak or burn. But even so the Turnpike was closed for almost six hours since hazardous materials experts took charge. An empty tanker had to be found, brought to the scene and the contents of the wrecked tanker pumped, and the damaged vehicles removed.
The Turnpike was closed between Exits 266 (PA72) and 286 (US222), 32km (20mi). Many cars turned around, but the big rigs just had to wait. US322, an undivided surface arterial became the Penn Pike stand-in.
There were other reports of similar truck ice missile crashes on PennDOT's interstates though there the main problem was that they allowed snow and ice to remain and accumulate on the pavement where it was crushed and frozen into a rockhard overlay of ice. Normal snow plows mounted on dump trucks were helpless. The removal of PennDOT's ice overlay required the ripping teeth and heavier attack capabilities of construction graders - equipment not normally kept at the ready in the snow season.
Still PennDOT's problems were aggravated by ice missiles coming off truck roofs, and in at least one case, reports suggest, the resulting crash caused such severe backups that snow clearing had to suspended for hours because snow plows were unable to get in to work the pavement. That was when they started closing their interstates, pleading with the Turnpike to take the traffic they were unable to handle.
Gov Ed Rendell has called the state's handling of the snow and traffic on the PennDOT interstates "totally unacceptable" and appointed a group to review what went wrong. Thousands of motorists were trapped in their cars for many hours, some overnight, and they complained that PennDOT had no warning signs.
Penn Pike allows 3ft for roof ice
The truck height limit on the Penn Pike and most Pennsylvania interstates is only 13.5ft (4.11m) but most overhead signs and new bridges are set at 16.5ft (5.03m) overhead clearance. That 3ft (0.9m) extra is partly because of snow and ice on truck roofs.
Truck roof snow has long been an issue in Pennsylvania. The state has sufficient through truck traffic that hours-of-service limits cause large numbers of truckers to sleep overnight in their cabs at truckstops where a foot or more of snow can accumulate on the roofs of their trailers and tractors. Wind can cause it to drift to greater heights in places on the roof.
If it's cold dry snow it blows off harmlessly once they get moving. But if there's a mix of snow and freezing rain, or some melt and a freeze, while the truck is stationary then it binds together and becomes icy. Hence the occasional ice missiles that fly off randomly as they rumble along the highway.
E-ZPass antenna height was an issue
The 16.5ft (5.03m) clearance limit on the Pennsylvania Turnpike is apparently borne of decades of experience of roof ice. Back in late 2000 there was a confrontation between the Penn Pike and the IAG E-ZPass group and Mark IV over the 5.03m (16.5ft) limit for overhead equipment. Following its established standards the Turnpike set the E-ZPass antennas at 5.03m (16.5ft). Mark IV, the E-ZPass supplier, said it couldn't sign off on the installation in Pennsylvania because they were outside the approved and tested mounting height of 4.42m to 4.72m (14.5ft to 15.5ft). Antennas in NY, NJ, DE, MD, VA and elsewhere had all been set within this height range, and it was incorporated in the contract documents between the IAG and Mark IV.
Lawyers said that if the Penn Pike set its antennas at 5.03m (16.5ft) then they would be voiding their warranty on 99.95% accurate read rates.
21 out of an initial fit of 68 antennas had been set to 5.03m (16.5ft) before the issue was raised.
Brian Swett, program director for electronic toll collection held firm for the Penn Pike height, saying: "The (E-ZPass) antennas are not going to serve as the Turnpike's over-height detectors. We're not going to have a truck (with its ice and snow load) bringing down an antenna and shutting down the system." (Toll Roads Newsletter #51, Sept 2000 p51)
The E-ZPass antennas were protected, but not the windshields of other vehicles.
Ice missiles a research opportunity - COMMENT
20k to 25k heavy trucks/day use the Penn Pike, I-80 and I-81, and I-90 and I-78. In bad weather when car drivers stay home trucks can constitute the majority of the traffic - as the pictures show. The sheer acreage of truck roof space out there on the highways carrying ice makes ice missiles a hazard.
Some arithmetic: 150k heavy trucks per day on Pennsylvania highways with an average roof of 50ft x 8ft = 400ft2 a total of 60m ft2 or 1,377acres (557ha) by 6 inches of ice = 30m ft3 of ice =850k m3 at specific gravity of 1, (the beauty of metrics!)=850kt or about the weight of eight aircraft carriers - a large mass to have floating randomly around a state like Pennsylvania on truck roofs.
This week's truck ice missiles have inflicted such heavy casualties and economic losses there's surely a case for some research into how best to prevent trucks carrying dangerous roof ice onto the highways. There is no present program to prevent this.
The common law could probably be used against trucks bringing ice onto the highways - suing them for damages - but that doesn't seem to be working.
Do the major truck route highways need roof ice detectors - an overheight laser detector say - at the exits of truck stops and rest areas, or even on entry ramps?
How best to de-ice truck roofs before the trucks get on the roads? What are the alternative techniques for getting the ice off safely? Some of the big trucking companies must have techniques for cleaning trailer roofs in their yards?
Who should pay?
How to enforce?
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accident occured on Hwy 30
This accident occured on Hwy 30 that runs north and south near St. Helens, Or on 6/14/02. The driver of the '97 Honda Accord crossed the double yellow line into oncoming traffic into the far lane directly into the path of an oncoming semi with a trailer. The driver of the Accord was traveling about 65 mph and according to witness' and police reports he turned the wheel into oncoming traffic in an act of suicide.
The driver died on scene but the semi's driver walked away very shaken. I towed the car in for the insurance company and have never seen anything like the damage done in my 3 years of hauling totaled cars. The pictures included are the ones obtained from the Oregon State Patrol that were taken on scene and the color ones are the ones taken a week later by me.
Location: Hwy 30
St. Helens, Oregon
Date: June 14, 2002
Injuries: Accord driver d.o.a. Semi driver shaken
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