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A DUAL
PURPOSE
By Julie
Fricker
My husband and I went on
vacation in August to visit family and friends living out on the east coast.
During the drive back to Wisconsin, something extremely gratifying happened to
us. First of all let me explain that most of the truck drivers
I know, (when they go on vacation) tend to stay pretty close to the home front,
but not us. No! My husband and I went on vacation and what did we do? We
actually drove two thousand eight hundred seventy-five miles round trip.
It must be some kind of disease that we can't stay home like most other people.
Granted normal people who go on vacation, go to the most exotic place they can
find within a hundred miles of where they live. But that's because they don't
drive for a living. To them, driving is a unique concept.
Have you ever heard of the term, busman's holiday? This expression came from the
concept that those who drive buses can go wherever they want free of charge, so
they all do it (or at least they used to). Travel agents also get to go anywhere
they want on vacation, free of charge. I believe the same is true for airline
employees. They are allowed certain perks within the company they works for. So
you see, it's really not an unusual concept.
But would you drive close to three thousand miles if you went on vacation? Well,
we did but I am digressing (meaning I'm getting off track here) I started out by
telling you that something extraordinary happened to us on vacation, so let's
get back to it shall we?
I turned an ordinary vacation (ostensibly to visit my family out on the east
coast) into a glorified business trip by combining two book signings, a speaking
engagement and a visit to my publisher all into one simple little road trip.
For the sake of the article I need to stretch this out a little bit.
Anyway we drove from the Madison area all the way out to Clarion, Pennsylvania
in one day, a distance of seven hundred and fifteen miles. Why did we drive that
far in one day? Because we could, that's why. No logs books! No ten hour rules!
No fifty-five miles an hour in Illinois and Ohio! And no right lane
restrictions! We traveled incognito in my brand new beautiful Jeep
Liberty. We even cruised along in the express lanes in Chicago!! What a thrill
that was, I have to tell you!
In all honesty, as far as the itinerary was concerned, we would have stopped
sooner but I hadn't thought to make room reservation anywhere along the way. Can
you believe it? I forgot to book us a room. Why would I forget to take care of
such a basic and fundamental necessity? Because quite honestly, I'm used to traveling
with my bed behind me and for some really weird reason, I simply
forgot that we didn't bring it with us. Such a trivial little detail really,
unless of course you're tired and cannot find a room within one hundred and
fifty miles of where you wanted to stop!
Troy and I laugh about it now but it wasn't very funny at the time. Driving a
semi can be so convenient sometimes. Whenever you get tired, you can just crawl
back there and get some shut eye.
On with my story: We went to Philadelphia to visit the family and to see the
publishing house where my novel, 'Shadows Of The Mountain' was put together. We
got the chance to meet all the folks who made my dream of becoming a published
author a reality. From there, we spent several hours at Penns Landing where I
found out that the ship I used to crew, had sunk. I'm sure there's a metaphor
buried in there somewhere since every company I have ever worked for went belly
up after I quit working for them (with the exception of Werner Enterprises, that
is) Maybe there's something to that? Who knows. Perhaps I should warn my boss.
Anyway, from there we drove up to Brattleboro, Vermont, where I had scheduled a
speaking engagement and book signing. It was held at a funky little coffee/tea
shop where folks from all over southern Vermont showed up to hear me talk about
my novel and listen to me extol the (many) virtues of the trucking industry.
Imagine that!
But I'm digressing again. Well heck, that's what writers do I suppose, we
digress. Some of us, more than others, right?
Any way, Troy and I stopped in to see my son on the way back to Wisconsin and we
spent the night with him and his family. We left the next morning and it was
while we were driving through Cleveland, that it happened.
We were in the second lane from the right and passing a tractor trailer who was
in the second lane from the left of a four lane highway. We were passing this
semi when Troy and I noticed an really odd sound. At first I thought maybe
the trailer had a flat tire and asked Troy to slow down, to see if that was
really the problem. Because in all honesty it didn't sound like any flat
tire I had ever heard.
We slowed down and allowed the semi to pass us so we could get a better look at
the situation. On closer inspection we saw the entire wheel jumping up and down
and realized that one of the duals on the trailer was going to blow off the
axle. (I am not kidding you about this!) Troy brought the jeep around the back
of the trailer and up alongside the left of the truck. We came up on the drivers
side, blowing the horn and waving the driver over to the shoulder. It was a
local female driver and once we got her attention, we backed out of it to follow
her. Not knowing what was going on, she hit her left turn signal. We got her
stopped on the left shoulder of I-90. (her choice, not ours)
She gave me her triangles and I ran to the back of the trailer to set them
up, while she and Troy went to the last set of duals on the blind side to
check out the wheel.
Sure enough, not only had several lugs sheared off, but the entire wheel was
breaking up with a huge crack running around the rim. Small chunks of metal were
tearing off of this wheel and it wouldn't have been long before her duals went
airborne.
We called 911 and asked for a police officer to be dispatched to the scene so we
could get her off of the road without any harm to the other motorists. They sent
a fire truck and I'm not kidding about that either. Apparently they were on
their way to an accident which had occurred on the east bound side of the
interstate. They assessed the situation and staying behind the semi, (with
lights and sirens going) they eased the traffic out from behind us, and we made
our way over to the next exit ramp.
Once we were all safely on the shoulder of the off ramp, the fire truck
continued onto the accident on the other side of the interstate. We stayed with
the driver until assured that someone was on the way out to help her.
I don't know what kind of harrowing experiences you've had out here but
for me, the time I lost a set of duals ranks pretty close to the top. I guess I
should say my partner lost the duals, since I was in the sleeper berth at the
time and sound asleep. He woke me up when it was my turn to drive and when I got
out of the truck, I noticed that the trailer was leaning sharply to the left. I
walked around to the back of the trailer to see why. When I saw the sheared off
axle, I called my partner over to ask him if he knew what had happened and where
he might have lost our duals. After he forced himself to stop laughing,
(apparently he thought this was the funniest thing he had ever seen) he
actually had the nerve to ask me this question: "If I knew where they were,
would they really be lost?"
Apparently he had no idea they came loose or where. He didn't even know if they
had hit anyone in the course of coming off of our trailer. He may not have
thought it was a big deal, but I did and so did the company which fired him on
the spot. They told him to immediately pack his stuff, get out of their truck
and find himself a ride to the bus station. Maybe if he could have stopped
laughing about it, and showed some measure of remorse, the company wouldn't have
fired him. Maybe. I don't know.
What I do know is this, when a set of duals come off of a trailer, they come off
with devastating consequences. I have heard about the results of such mishaps
several times. The worst being when a set of duals hit a mini-van and killed the
driver and the passenger behind him. I have never found out what happened to the
duals we lost and in all honesty, I don't want to know what happened to them. I
have a hard enough time sleeping at night without that too on my conscience.
I know that in stopping that particular driver in Cleveland last month, we very
well could have adverted a real tragedy. The coincidences could have been
catastrophic if she hadn't been stopped. But what if we hadn't recognized what
we saw and stopped her. What if we said "it's not our problem"? How
many other drivers passed by without paying attention? She certainly had no idea
what was happening back there and I don't blame her. Several times since then, I
have tried to see what was going on back there with my blind side tandems, and
in all honesty, I can barely even see them, let alone hear them making any noise
from way up here in the drivers seat.
Whether we think it's our job or not, we need to be aware of what is going on
around us. We need to watch out for one another out here because as the
expression goes, the life you save, may be your own.
Ladies, (and men), I bid you all goodbye for now. I hope have a good
week....Julie Fricker
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