Forum Discussion
- Sympathies to the family.
- So sorry to hear this...our sympathies to the driver and families involved.
- Man oh man...that is just so sad. The article isn`t clear on the circumstances..at least I wasn`t able to figure it out..if they were passing a line of slow vehicles and crested a hill or got forced off the road by on-coming traffic while in their own lane.
What misery.
Gary Haupt - The way I read it, they crested a hill and there was slow moving traffic on the other side and couldn't slow enough, so driver went for the ditch.
- Another site makes a bit more sense: "The Freightliner Sports Coach had crested a hill on hwy 43 about 3 kilometers east of Fox Creek when it came upon a slow moving set of vehicles. The Freightliner swerved towards the slow lane side ditch to avoid a collision with the rear pilot vehicle. When the Freightliner hit the ditch this caused it to roll coming to rest on its roof." I still don't really understand it, though - driving too fast and/or not paying attention? Hard to imagine how awful that would be, though - what the driver has to live with :(
- Reading the police reports and a comment page, seems that there was a 'pilot car' that was the tail end vehicle. Driver of the RV came up the hill and there, on the other side of the hill...the slow moving industrial troupe...including the slow or stopped even, pilot car. Driver of the RV tried to get on the shoulder..they are calling it the slow lane, and I am guessing, that his right front tires hit the soft dirt, that would have pulled him further in and down..and over it went, onto it's roof. The reports suggest that woman was not wearing her seatbelt. Male driver had monir injuries.
The reports keep saying 'Freightliner', so I guess it was a Super C. They are badged as Freightliners.
http://www.albertapolicereport.com/2013/06/07/fatal-motor-home-rollover-on-highway-43/
Scroll down for comments.
Gary Haupt - So was there construction going on ('pilot car')?
From GM it looks like Hwy 43 in this area is twined, and relatively flat and straight. It is hard to identify a 'hill' that one might crest.
I wonder if the passenger was wearing a seat belt. - It is a four lane divided highway with paved shoulders.
One of the articles said "east of Fox Creek" but highway 43 goes north and south.
Why wouldn't the driver go for the left lane instead of the right shoulder?
It can be a big surprise when you go over the brow of a hill and come upon a traffic stoppage with vehicles lined up. Somebody should go back to the top of the hill with flashing lights. paulj wrote:
So was there construction going on ('pilot car')?
From GM it looks like Hwy 43 in this area is twined, and relatively flat and straight. It is hard to identify a 'hill' that one might crest.
I wonder if the passenger was wearing a seat belt.
I am thinking it was probably an oil-fieled type of equipment being transported, thus the pilot car. Long, slow, wide and ugly. Lot of that stuff in northern Alberta.
I think that driver of the pilot car is in a double bind...there is likley a legal distance that they need to stay between themselves and the vehicle being escorted. Experiece tells them too, that leave space between them and all of a sudden, there are 'outsiders' in the mix.
This may not get answered in the media coverage.
Gary Haupt- Check your map, Harv. 43 has a few sections that are E/W, and runs at a 45* angle NW/SE.
