Could Additional Runaway Truck Ramps Prevent Fatal California Accidents?

Could Additional Runaway Truck Ramps Prevent Fatal California Accidents?

Improperly maintained, defective, or overheated brakes can lead to failure, which is intensely dangerous, especially on alp roads, for the driver generally loses superintendence of the vehicle. An 80, 000 - pound big outfit hurtling down a steep road carries a high risk of serious injury or death for not only the driver but also the occupants of surrounding vehicles. Equipping precipitous roads and highways with runaway truck ramps is one way to prevent fatal accidents. A crash that recently occurred in California illustrates how adding additional ramps could advance traffic safety in the state, explains a local attorney.
In April 2009, a semi hauling cars on its twofold - decker trailer lost its brakes while approaching the final stretch of the Angeles Crest Highway, striking a car as it sped over the 210 Freeway, dragging it into a crowded intersection, and colliding with five more vehicles before climactically blaring into a bookstore in La Canada Flintridge. The accident claimed two lives and injured 12 people. The driver had ignored the sign prohibiting immense trucks from odyssey on the elevation road, where surrounding peaks reach almost 8, 000 feet, as well as warnings from a passing motorist that his brakes were overheating, reported the Los Angeles Times. While the trucker distinctly acted negligently, once his brakes failed, a runaway truck ramp may have prevented the tragic accident.
Many riffraff in the city in which the truck accident occurred were enraged when they discovered that up until recently, the highway did have an escape survey. Deciding that conditions for trucks had more desirable on the road, the California Department of Transportation landscaped over the lane, replacing a crucial safety quality with fauna on an present-day scenic highway, explains an attorney in the state.
A common side on many peak roads, runaway truck ramps are inclined execute - ramps concealed with gravel or mushroom. When an out - of - weight truck climbs the incline, the gravitational pull causes the vehicle to decelerate, the friction created by the unpolished attend contributing to the reaction. Records from 1990 try that 170 like ramps hap in the United States, according to an tragedy in Car and Driver gazette.
Fortunately, just four months after the fatal accident in La Canada Flintridge, the Manager signed AB1361, officially banning commercial vehicles with three or more axles that hash over more than 9, 000 pounds from the Angeles Crest Highway. Drivers hooked on the road now face a $1, 000 fine. To assure that truckers bracket to the law, warning cipher were placed along the traveling.
A law prohibiting substantial trucks from the round, however, will not secure that another accident like the one that occurred in 2009 will befall. Laws are sometimes broken, and if another truck driver were descending the highway with error brakes, only an escape beat would prevent a serious accident.