Hwy 40 blues

[I'vegotthenutz]

Sorry guys I hate to complain but I just hate this road, I got to the Hay River road at about 10:30am and not one sanding truck to be seen,wtf!
The road was an ice rink and probably 15cm of freshly fallen snow (that part I didn't mind )

 

[rmk800]

thats got to suck, at least your getting practiced up for the winter season

 

[-rossco-]

thats sweet I live in Hinton big berland usually has some fun riding hope it keeps snowing in all directions like that

 

[I'vegotthenutz]

The first pic shows what a whiteout it was going to work this morning at 10am. The second one is typically what you see on this road. There were about 7 other big units parked on the hwy putting there chains on when they seen this guy

 

[I'vegotthenutz]

forgot to include pics..

 

[FAB1]

Just read this...Sad Deal.

Three dead after Greyhound bus rolls in northern Alberta

BEZANSON, Alta. - Three passengers were killed and six more were badly hurt Monday when a Greyhound bus skidded off an icy northern Alberta highway in pre-dawn darkness and flipped over 360 degrees.

Passengers were sent flying out the windows of the bus, some ending up pinned under it.

"The bus driver told me he just started to slide and he hit the ditch," said Tamas Virag, a reporter with the Grande Prairie Daily Herald-Tribune, who rushed to the scene shortly after the 6:15 a.m. crash.

"An eyewitness said it looked like the trailer (being pulled by the bus) got a little bit light and - because these buses have their engine in the back - started sliding around and he ended up going sideways into the median.

"The back wheels dug in, it flipped over completely and ended up rightside up on its wheels."

There were 28 passengers plus the driver on the regularly scheduled run from Edmonton to Grande Prairie when the bus slipped after negotiating a curve on Highway 43 dubbed the Bezanson Corner, east of Grande Prairie.

Two were in critical condition and four listed as serious at the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Grande Prairie. The remaining 20 had minor injuries.

Identities of the dead were not released pending notification of next of kin.

"It would be fair to say the weather played a factor in this. The roads were very icy," said RCMP Const. Scott Hagarty.

One passenger said he and half a dozen people on his side of the bus were propelled out the windows as the bus rolled.

Virag said the crash scene was chaos in a blackness lit only by the spotlight from a nearby fire truck.

Rescue crews worked in sub-zero temperatures to extricate trapped passengers while other victims sat huddled on the side of the snow-dusted median, covered in yellow plastic blankets.

"A lot were standing around in a dazed state," said Virag.

Virag arrived to a roar as an air ambulance helicopter touched down 10 metres away from him on a grass field.

"I pulled up on the shoulder beside all the big rigs and my car started to slip off the road. We had to be pretty careful walking around," said Virag.

"It looked like straight sheet ice, your stereotypical black ice. You don't even notice it until you turn or put your brakes on."

The bus, its roof partially crunched in and its windows blown out, ended up with its back perpendicular to the road.

The driver has been with Greyhound for a year, said company spokesman Dave Hickie, who could offer no further details.

"We're currently investigating. We're trying to put together the details."

Hotels in Grande Prairie were being booked for the passengers, he added.

It's the second bus accident in the area in recent years.

In August 2005, a Greyhound bus travelling from Edmonton to British Columbia collided with two trucks along a stretch of foggy highway. No one was killed, but the driver was seriously injured.

 

[Summitric]

Yea, Check Out The Pics On Canoe.ca...... Incredible Damage, And Some Quite Graphic Pics Too..... Ouch My Sympathy Goes Out To The Passengers And Drivers Of The Vehicles..... Hoping For The Best.

 

[teeroy]

It's the second bus accident in the area in recent years.

In August 2005, a Greyhound bus travelling from Edmonton to British Columbia collided with two trucks along a stretch of foggy highway. No one was killed, but the driver was seriously injured.

my friend Todd was driving the TCM truck involved in the accident in '05, he ran into the back of the truck that was stopped in the middle of the highway, the Greyhound then ran into the back of him. it was amazing no one died in that crash....the bus driver was very lucky. privatizing highway maintenance was a mistake in my opinion....anywhere they can save money, they do as little as possible. usually results in bad accidents like these.

 

[I'vegotthenutz]

That is terrible, just seen on global this morning. Many hwy's in this province are in serious need of a rebuild.
Another one bites the dust monday morning..

 

[Anthony]

My little brother was awaiting surgery at the hospital in Grande Prairie since monday, this morning I drove from Peace River to Grande Prairie to see him, and holy COW I had a REALLY close call... I almost left a tattoo of a FORD LOGO on the side of a PT Cruiser.

It was freezing rain off an on all morning. Between Grimshaw and Fairview about 10-15 car lengths in-front of my was a Red PT Cruiser. I was driving about 70-75 KM's, and I am guessing she was too since I wasn't gaining on her at all.
Then all of the sudden, she hits her breaks swerves to the middle of the road and hits the small pile up of snow between the south and north bound lanes, then her car was swerving from left to right, and eventually spun three or four times in a circle. By this time I was trying to stop without sliding my self. Meanwhile, I have my four-ways on and all the cars behind me are trying to avoid hitting each other too!

Eventually she stopped 90 Degrees to the road... and I drove around the left of her... It was clearly a close call and I am thankful that I stopped in time without plastering the side of her car.

I give credit to driving in 4x4, as well as the decent amount of car lengths between us.

Not 20 KM's down the highway, was a Chevy Truck that was pretty much totaled, sitting on it's side in the ditch.
It was a very fresh accident too because there was still a guy trapped inside the truck (Several other vehicles were stopped assisting already, If i Stopped it would have created more of a hazard than an asset to the situation)

The roads were treacherous... after arriving at the hospital at GP to see my brother, I also saw a couple of the injured from the Greyhound accident, and made me realize how serious road conditions actually are, and what the consequences of not driving to the road conditions can be.

 

[teeroy]

the roads were treacherous up here yesterday, it was lightly raining when I left Grimshaw heading north to Keg River and at the third battle river north of Manning there was a lineup of trucks waiting for the sandtruck to do the hill. in the row of trucks was a sandtruck!
I walked up and asked him why he wasn't sanding the hill and he says to me "are you crazy? that hill is slippery!" there was one sander already down there he told me, and when he got up to the top, he was gonna follow him.

unreal....wish I would've taken a pic of him waiting in the lineup. he was about the 5th truck in line behind the super-B's. I was hauling a campshack and as soon as the other sand truck came to the top and turned around to go back down, I pulled out and followed him. the highway was very slippery all the way to the Carcajou road, where I turned off the highway.

be careful out there folks, please take your time and make it to where you're going safely. the transition periods from fall to winter are always the worst for highway driving.