Truck Runaway Down a Mountain in Wyoming by Bev Plummer
Truck Runaway Down a Mountain in Wyoming
While we were waiting at the Evanston WY truck stop that had been our home for 3 days for the chain law to be lifted, I was watching other drivers chaining up.
The 2 trucks beside us belonged to a father and son and they were chaining every wheel. Tractor and trailer. When I saw them putting a set on the steers I had to ask why, the dad said “It’s no use going if you can’t steer. Chaining the steers stops the truck from skating”
I knew what he was talking about from working in the bush with my husband and riding with him when we would take a load of pulp wood from the bush to the railway.
If you have never had a truck skate on an icy curve you are missing a heart pounding experience. That’s when you’ve turned the steering wheel but the truck keeps going in a straight line.
Finally on the 3rd day the chain law was lifted and we were allowed to start out. I should have waited till the next morning, but this was the first trip we were making for this company I wanted to get this load delivered on time.
You can safely go down a hill with a load if you use the same gear it would take to climb it.
I’m sure most of us have heard this when we were learning to haul freight,,,, following this rule can kill you! First of all when you’re climbing a hill the load is trying to pull the tractor back, when you’re descending a hill that load is pushing the truck.
I got a hard fast lesson the day I left Evanston Wy and headed up the first mountain. There was 44,000 lbs or so in the trailer and the old General had no Jake brake,,,, I was in 5th gear when I topped the hill.
The road looked like a rutted bobsled run and when the load started pushing me the truck over revved in a heartbeat. So to keep from blowing the engine I thought I would shift up, lol. As soon as I put it into neutral the truck shot off like a bullet and I couldn’t get into another gear, also I was rapidly gaining on the line of trucks ahead of me!
I grabbed my CB mic and said “I’m coming down too fast I can’t get my truck into a gear !! And this deep calm voice came back “You’ll be ok sweetheart just lean it out into that other lane and let it run, we’ll all just stay in this one and when you stop on the face of that other mountain just pull the red button” I never knew who talked to me but I have been grateful for him saving our lives that day. I still remember my partners face it was a white as chalk and he had his feet braced against the dash, that driver kept talking to me until I stopped on the next hill thank goodness I didn’t start sliding backwards, but it was just icy enough that I couldn’t get going again, so there we sat. We were only about a mile or less from the Little America Truck stop. The drivers going by couldn’t stop to pick us up because they would have been stuck too. But then a woman’s voice came on the CB she said they had a Jeep and would give us a ride to the truck stop.
They were local and knew people who worked at the truck stop, they told us to talk to the girl at the fuel desk and she would know who to call for a tow.
The fuel desk attendant’s name was Carol and she knew exactly who to call! She said Tim Cook is who you need and she called him. While we were waiting we sat down with a coffee by now the reaction to my runaway was setting in and I was shaking so bad I could hardly drink my coffee,,, but before I was even half finished the door flew open and this tall apparition came flying through “Kramer “ style! He was well over 6 feet tall dressed in a long drover’s coat, he had long curly red hair past his shoulders and topped it off with a leather cowboy hat, before he stopped moving he called out “ Who in here needs a tow off the Sister?”. I put my hand up and heard my voice say in a really high shaky voice “That would be us”. Hardly breaking stride he said “C’mon” and headed out the door.
Sitting in the yard was the biggest Tow truck or Wrecker as they call them there, huffing and rumbling it was all black and was a 6 wheel drive Kenworth, Tim called “Betsey” . We climbed in and went to rescue my truck. He hooked up aired up my truck and away we went up to the Little America Truck Stop. After he got my truck parked he asked us what our plans were, we told him we would sleep in the truck and start out again in the morning. He didn’t think that was a good idea, he told us that his wife managed the motel in Evanston and he wanted us to have a good warm safe place to recover from the runaway. He took us to the motel came and took us back up to the truck stop got the truck started and charged us $17.00 ! His comment was “I rescue a lot of trucks stuck in the mud at oil rigs and they pay real good, but I have to give my wife something for the room’’ he climbed back into Betsey with a wave and a “ You kids be careful now” and he was gone. I never saw Tim again but I hope he knows he was very instrumental in me continuing on this long road.
BUT this trip was far from over!
Stay tuned for more of Bev’s life experiences as a truck driver.
