Forum Discussion

The_Mad_Norsky's avatar
Jun 22, 2013

US 2 North Dakota

Folks, there are lots of questions in various forums about traveling along US 2 in North Dakota.

Traffic, especially in the NW part of North Dakota can get very heavy, considering the rural nature of this state.

This morning, near Stanley ND on US 2, in thick fog, an eastbound semi-truck attempted a turn north, across the four lane westbound lane and was struck by multiple vehicles, both pickups and other semi trucks.

Three people were killed and a tremendous fire broke out, closing the highway for quite some time.

As one can see from the photo, it was a terrible wreck. Please also note, off to the left side of the photo, the line of traffic backed up in what is the eastbound lane of US 2. Note the large amounts of trucks in that line, which is the norm for NW North Dakota highways right now with the oil boom happening there.

So continue to travel through that area, but take care with all the traffic in that section of US 2.

  • Did that road in 2008 on our way to AK. It is not for those in a hurry.
    It's a road for a cautious approach, especially when approaching towns. It's the kind of road I , personally, like to travel because I'm not in a hurry!
  • The area around Williston is the heart of the ND oil boom and has a great many heavy vehicles entering, crossing and exiting US-2. One stupid move, especially when compounded by bad weather can cause this type of problem anywhere. We've been traveling US-2 on our way up to and back from Alaska since 2006 and even with current oil related traffic, we wouldn't go any other way. We run US-2 from Michigan to I-15 in Montana.