It can happen just that quick.
I've had a lot of tense moments this winter. Roads that were solid packed ice and snow while 55mph winds and driving into more no joke, straight up blizzards than I care to remember. All of that came up short to what I experienced this morning. I had the scariest experience yet on this job and in general for a long time.
I was coming back from Canada, heading south on I-29. It was about 5am and still dark because of heavy overcast. Exit 196 is a standard rural exit with an overpass over the main road. As I went under the overpass and my headlights illuminated what was ahead, I beheld something that instantly made my whole body go numb. The entirely of the interstate, both southbound and northbound lanes, the median, the ditches, the entire right of way...
was underwater.
The entire road for a good 300 yards in the southbound lanes was under no less than 3-4 inches of standing water. There was NO time to react. I hit it doing 75mph with the cruise on and the engine brake as well. For a few terrifying seconds I wasn't a driver anymore. I was a helmsmen.
I now know what it feels like to hydroplane 18 wheels at once. What was even more terrifying was that as the truck bit into the water it begin to rotate. The front started going slightly to the left while the rear started going slightly to the right. I knew that if the truck went even 1/2 way sideways that the water resistance on the side of the wheels would cause the whole thing to slam into its side. At the speed I was going that slide would carry me off to the side and into the ditch where it would all come to rest upside down...and underwater.
These are interstate ditches. There's a good 7-8 feet from their bottom to the top of the road surface. I was staring my possible watery death in the face. Luckily I hadn't frozen. A second or 2 after hitting the water I had recovered from the initial shock and my right foot bounced once on the brake pedal to disengage the cruise while the open palm my right hand just smashed down onto the control panel to disengage the engine brake.
Luckily as the rotation of the truck continued, the left front wheel made purchase with the road where the center line is which is slightly raised from the main travel lanes (into order to shed water to the sides when it rains). This gave some control and let me bring it back straight with the direction of the road which in turn caused rear of the trailer to whip back into alignment with the rest of the truck. It also slowed me down enough for the truck to sink down and bring all the wheels back into contact with the road.
I wish I'd had a chase plane or camera crew in front of me because the whole thing had to have looked epic. I was mostly back in control but still going fast enough that the truck was throwing up huge waves to either side. Let me tell you though, I was shaking for a good minute or 2 after it was all over.
I keep going but called 911 and asked to be connected to the Highway Patrol. The operator though asked me what was up and I told them what I'd just went through and how there was NO warning at all about the flooded road. The operator replied with something along the lines of "Yeah, we've already called them about this once but haven't really heard anything back from them about it. I'll try to get in contact with them again and let em know what's going on." I wasn't really happy with that answer and called up the Highway Patrol dispatch number myself. The person I talked to there said that NDDOT had been made aware of it. Guess it wasn't worth sending ONE DAMN CAR OUT THERE to just sit with its lights on and to make people slow down a little even.
Unlike me the northbound trucks would be able to see that section before they were on top of it but I still tried to let them know as I passed them going south. Out of about 30 trucks, only 2 actually had their CBs on though. Oh well, guess they can find out the hard way.
I'm glad I don't have to go out again tonight because once I stopped bouncing from adrenaline, I just felt drained after that.
I was coming back from Canada, heading south on I-29. It was about 5am and still dark because of heavy overcast. Exit 196 is a standard rural exit with an overpass over the main road. As I went under the overpass and my headlights illuminated what was ahead, I beheld something that instantly made my whole body go numb. The entirely of the interstate, both southbound and northbound lanes, the median, the ditches, the entire right of way...
was underwater.
The entire road for a good 300 yards in the southbound lanes was under no less than 3-4 inches of standing water. There was NO time to react. I hit it doing 75mph with the cruise on and the engine brake as well. For a few terrifying seconds I wasn't a driver anymore. I was a helmsmen.
I now know what it feels like to hydroplane 18 wheels at once. What was even more terrifying was that as the truck bit into the water it begin to rotate. The front started going slightly to the left while the rear started going slightly to the right. I knew that if the truck went even 1/2 way sideways that the water resistance on the side of the wheels would cause the whole thing to slam into its side. At the speed I was going that slide would carry me off to the side and into the ditch where it would all come to rest upside down...and underwater.
These are interstate ditches. There's a good 7-8 feet from their bottom to the top of the road surface. I was staring my possible watery death in the face. Luckily I hadn't frozen. A second or 2 after hitting the water I had recovered from the initial shock and my right foot bounced once on the brake pedal to disengage the cruise while the open palm my right hand just smashed down onto the control panel to disengage the engine brake.
Luckily as the rotation of the truck continued, the left front wheel made purchase with the road where the center line is which is slightly raised from the main travel lanes (into order to shed water to the sides when it rains). This gave some control and let me bring it back straight with the direction of the road which in turn caused rear of the trailer to whip back into alignment with the rest of the truck. It also slowed me down enough for the truck to sink down and bring all the wheels back into contact with the road.
I wish I'd had a chase plane or camera crew in front of me because the whole thing had to have looked epic. I was mostly back in control but still going fast enough that the truck was throwing up huge waves to either side. Let me tell you though, I was shaking for a good minute or 2 after it was all over.
I keep going but called 911 and asked to be connected to the Highway Patrol. The operator though asked me what was up and I told them what I'd just went through and how there was NO warning at all about the flooded road. The operator replied with something along the lines of "Yeah, we've already called them about this once but haven't really heard anything back from them about it. I'll try to get in contact with them again and let em know what's going on." I wasn't really happy with that answer and called up the Highway Patrol dispatch number myself. The person I talked to there said that NDDOT had been made aware of it. Guess it wasn't worth sending ONE DAMN CAR OUT THERE to just sit with its lights on and to make people slow down a little even.
Unlike me the northbound trucks would be able to see that section before they were on top of it but I still tried to let them know as I passed them going south. Out of about 30 trucks, only 2 actually had their CBs on though. Oh well, guess they can find out the hard way.
I'm glad I don't have to go out again tonight because once I stopped bouncing from adrenaline, I just felt drained after that.