CRASH, BANG, tinkle, tinkle . . .

I was sitting in my back yard enjoying a nice sunny afternoon when a loud crash broke the dull whoosh of passing traffic.



I live on the corner at the intersection of a busy highway and a side street and unfortunately I see a lot of accidents right here.


Luckily, nobody was seriously injured in this crash although one lady was taken to Hospital for observation.



I don't know the exact details but I believe the Volvo driver was blinded by the sun while making a left turn and did not see the Mercedes.



In the eight years I have lived here, I have seen numerous serious crashes here including two that took out traffic light poles and one where a car flipped and did several barrel rolls.


Besides the human suffering resulting from a car crash, the financial cost can be tremendous, especially when large vehicles are involved.

The cost of commercial vehicle collisions can easily reach a half million dollars or more even when there are no injuries and can affect thousands of drivers with gridlock and detours.



In the end, the tow truck operators are the only ones that really benefit from a collision, let's put them out of business, . . . OK?

Drive to Arrive Alive!


More on road safety at http://www.ezee.ca
Forklift Safety at liftright.net
See Truck photos or my other photos at donssite.com
and my photo blog or see optical illusions or web animations

Now you can listen to Pete Harris too

Smoke

I still haven't heard what burned in this "industrial fire".




The police had the area blocked off pretty good and the radio only said industrial fire when they talked about it, though they did mention plastics.



I'm sort of curious because I used to work real close to the "scene".

Thick black smoke was drifting across the highway and it was during rush hour so commuters were not impressed with the back-up which went several miles. Luckily I was going the other direction.


Read up on Road Safety or on Forklift Safety or Optical Illusions, Web Animations, My Photography, or Truck Photos.

Winter has arrived!

Well, it's here. The snow has arrived and ten minutes into my first flurry a car spun out in front of me as I was turning through an intersection.



The driver looked like he saw a ghost, he did a 180 and was facing me (driving a truck right at him) when he stopped.

Winter driving is much different than warm weather driving with some obvious hazards but sometimes there are hidden hazards as well such as "black ice". Black ice is a thin layer of ice that forms on the road that is invisible and causes a tremendous number of accidents each year (mostly vehicles in the ditch).

Whenever the temps drop below or even near freezing drivers must adjust their driving habits to suit the conditions. SLOW DOWN, LEAVE MORE DISTANCE BETWEEN VEHICLES and PREPARE TO STOP SOONER.

Drive safe!

More on road safety at http://www.ezee.ca/
Forklift Safety at liftright.net
See my photos at donssite.com or see optical illusions or web animations

Rainy Day

It was a pretty wet day today and the rain caused havoc in traffic all over.

I saw several weather related accidents today.




There was a car overturned in a ditch after sliding on wet pavement that slowed traffic down a bit.

Then a few miles down the road was a big mess for several hours where a bus and truck tangled leaving the bus in the ditch.


Slow down in poor weather conditions.

No tires can grip a wet road anywhere near as good as a dry road especially when the road is "greasy" with traces of various automotive fluids and road dirt mixed with the rain.




More on road safety at http://www.ezee.ca
Forklift Safety at liftright.net
See Truck photos or my other photos at donssite.com
or see optical illusions or web animations

Stop Light Massacre

A couple of weeks ago I heard someones life change forever.

Early on a rainy morning I walked outside to take out the trash and I heard two thuds that sounded like hitting a metal trash can with a baseball bat.

I walked out to the road but I couldn't see anything and traffic was moving by normally so I went back in the house.

Then a couple of minutes later I heard a siren, I rushed out and saw a Police car arriving to join a fire truck and ambulance a block down the street.

I started walking down the street then saw that the stop light in the southern median was on the ground in the middle of the intersection.

A bystander said the driver was in pretty rough shape which was understandable after looking at the accident scene.

The really unfortunate thing is that it keeps happening.



I've seen the stop light in front of my house taken out three times in the last two years and twice they rolled over after hitting median curb. (Above)

I can't help thinking, Maybe it's time for suspended stop lights.

More on road safety at http://www.ezee.ca
Forklift Safety at liftright.net
Or see my photos at donssite.com

Aggressive Highway Driver

There is a dangerous behavior I encounter occasionally while driving a truck past highway entry ramps. Vehicles entering the highway racing past the end of the on ramp to get in front of the truck.

A guy in a pick up truck did it today when I was already going 60 mph in solid traffic, he almost clipped me as he passed then instantly slammed on his brakes to avoid hitting the car in front of me when the shoulder narrowed and he had to merge.


Luckily I wasn't carrying an unstable load because I had to hit my brakes to avoid hitting him.

He has stolen MY SAFETY SPACE and could have potentially caused a serious accident.

Some people just don't get it when it comes to road safety.

Road Safety tips at http://www.ezee.ca
Forklift Safety at liftright.net
or see my photos at donssite.com

Flat tire on the highway

Well, I was heading into work today in heavy traffic bound for Toronto when I started to feel this sickening feeling "in the seat of my pants" then the dreaded sound like a small propeller driven airplane. A rapid flat tire, and I'm in the middle lane going 50 mph.

As I begin slowing and manage to get into the right lane, I see there's nowhere to go. No shoulder whatsoever but an entry ramp is coming up in about a quarter of a mile so I kept going to the ramp and got off as far as I could. Then got out and looked at my chewed up tire.

I don't get flat tires very often, so I wasn't really prepared to deal with it. The spare tire is mounted under the van, WHAT A STUPID PLACE to put the spare, rusted into place, there's no way I'm getting it off so I had to get towed in to get a new tire.

Luckily, (the only good thing about my day) Canadian Tire covered it and another tire under their road hazard warranty.

So, I get to work about three hours late, but at least I got there.

Things could have been much worse, It could have been snowing or raining, it could have been my front tire, I could have been going much faster and It could have caused an accident.

It goes to show that you have to be ready for anything while you are driving, you can never "let your guard down" in highway traffic.

Drive Safe,

Safe driving tips at http://ezee.ca
Forklift Safety at http://liftright.net
or see my photos at http://donssite.com