Rip
I came upon this accident this morning (9/29/09) at about 6:30 involving an R + L and a Conway. Niether truck was pulling doubles. It occurred on the westbound side of I-30 (30 miles east/NE of Mount Pleasant, TX) at the point where drivers can stop at the wide, deep shoulder (parking area) to rest. Nobody on the CB knew how it happened. But it had to be that the Conway was pulling out of the parking area and the R + L changed lanes from left to right and didn't see that the slow moving Conway was there. He was killed instantly. They didn't extract his body until later when the coroner showed up. Instead they covered the driver side window with a tarp because part of his upper body was sticking thru the window. I-30 was shut down almost an hour after this happened. I don't think the Conway driver was seriously injured, although he was taken away by ambulance. The impact was very powerful, leaving debris and oil over 200 feet from the point of impact. That's about how far the R + L truck pushed the Conway after striking it. The Conway had just pulled out onto the roadway when it got hit.
There's just no way we truck drivers should ever be tailgating each other or changing lanes when a clear view of the lane one is changing into isn't available.
