I-80 pa.

Terrible accident please remember to slow down near construction.
Let someone signaling out and give them space,sometime's they need to use the left lane too,even if their truck only goes 62mph.

I-80 Reopened After Wreck

Thanks for this crash report jimbobillybob I didn't see this on the internet anywhere as of last night.

From the few details of this report, I'd say the trucker who lost his life,may of been tired,and wasn't completely focued on his driving to make such a bad error in judgement.

For all of the crash reports I've seen and posted on the Truckingboards,this is my opinion of this tragic crash.

Cause of I-80 wreck

As the driver's sister we are strugging to understand this accident. My brother was very experienced (18 yrs) and very careful. He had just told another trucker that he had to cease talking as there was construction coming up. He stops and takes a nap when he is tired. So we are looking for another answer.

I hope you have found some peace, but you will probably never find the answer. I don't know the previous poster or anything about his background, but can say after 20 years out here, the only thing I've learned is you can't ever know what happened in front of him if you weren.t beside him. But the last thing I would ever do is attempt to post an opinion in something like this. He was a professional and I'm not sure how to say what I'm trying to say.
My son was killed in a single vehicle accident. I practically raised him from a toddler on my cattle truck with me, his booster seat was strapped solid on his side. I've got pictures of him standing chest high to the bottom Peterbilt step waiting for me to pick him up & stand him on each one to get in. He been hundreds of thousands of miles with me & he'd put over 125,000 miles on his explorer in about 20 months. He use to have me give lectures to his friends about driving, they'd want to know how to handle a blow-out, I wanted to tell them how to not overcorrect when they fell off a shoulder of the road. That was my fear & what I felt could save their life, Trey knew this, knew it well, blowouts are easy, jerkin that wheel will get you every time. And from all appearances & evidence it killed him, and yet I know something happened that morning. I have spent time just sitting there looking & the best I can gather a large deer was known by residents to cross from the pasture baxk into the woods about sunup, (it was 540am), he was in his mothers car (wore out,plus he wasn't used to it Mazda vs his explorer), he had inherited my bullhauler right foot & I think had I been in his place (and would give anything to have been) it would have been the same result.
The question is not for your brother, but what happened in front of the other driver to create the situation. Your brother was probably trying to minimize the situation for the driver/traffic behind him-I'd look at the front truck & why did he overdrive his space to cause him to have to lock it down-leaving your blindsided. When in a situation like that(one truck behind another, you have no view of traffic flow in the second truck) you're depending on the pro in front of you to be driving far enough in front of him self to where he would not have to lock it down, thus leaving you nowhere to go. I hope I'm making sense trying to explain what I'm seeing. I wouldn't think for a minute your brother drove into the back of him, I think something happened to make the front truck lock it down & your brother had nowhere to go because he saw no reason to, he probably, nor would I drive in such a way as to make us lock it down when another driver is riding blind behind me-the front truck is like the conductor of a train, if that makes any sense.
It looks to me like a square hit, but that's my thoughts, I don't know if they help,

Thank you for your reply. I am so sorry about your son. It was so fortunate though that you were able to spend so much time with him and that you had such a good relationship. It was clear he admired you. Not all fathers are able to achieve that. I realize that we will never know about what happened in Jim's accident. I know that he would try hard not to hurt anyone around him. He was very careful and drove about 60 miles an hour at the max. He always said I drove too fast to be able to stop if I needed to. We cleaned out his tractor and found a letter forwarding a safety bonus for 2007. Your note has helped us to think more clearly so we can move on. Thank you so very much.

Thank you, & as grateful as I am for all the time we shared, (And I appreciate you reminding me of it, it helps point me back in the right frame of mind) it seems to be that much harder to move on. But I like you pointed out I was lucky for the time we had, am beginning to have more days like that instead of how bad it hurts.
you knew Jim and you know his ability,attitude & professionalism; sometimes things happen & nothing else matters, some one is gone.
Look at Dale Earnheardt, who would have ever imagined a simple tap & he was gone & he was the best there was.
Jim earned the right to be given the benefit of the doubt & from what little I could see, he at least didn't panic & cut his wheels which could have involved everyone around him, oncoming traffic, workers, etc. We'll never know, but I know he knew you can turn quicker than you can stop, the downside is basically you give up control of your rig and have to hope you can ride it out without running over some one. Once you cut that wheel you'll never catch back up to it. In that split second his instinct was at least to not take a chance by involving anyone else.