Armchair Quarterbacks Unite! Stupid Stuff We've all Done...

[adamis]

Saw this video on YouTube of a 5th wheel wreck. Thankfully everyone was okay though at the end as a warning their is a child panicking. There is a follow up video where the guy talks about what lead up to this moment. I haven't seen the whole follow up video but he mainly talks about how quickly the weather came in and such. From what I saw, I would say speed is what led to the disaster. He said he was driving about 30mph just before but looking at the video I think it's a bit faster then that. As soon as there was snow and ice, he should have pulled off but then on a mountain pass, that isn't always possible. At a minimum slow to a crawl.

As much as I would like to say I would never put myself in this situation, if you are on the road long enough, it's only a matter of time before you encounter a situation where seemingly small decisions end up in near disaster. When you look in hindsight, you will then see how those small choices ended up being poor choices.

For myself, probably the worst I've done (though not necessarily life threatening like this) was to trust Google Maps routing way too much. Unbeknownst to us we had been routed off of I5 near Garberville, CA because of a rock slide. It lead us from pavement to a nice dirt road that progressively got worse as the miles went by. Eventually we were in the bottom of a ravine where it became really muddy and couldn't climb up the other side. The road was super narrow and had about an 18" drop off on either side for water to run off. Ended up having to backup nearly a 1000ft before we could find a place to turn around.

If you haven't been to the Garberville area, just know it's a place that out in the sticks, people don't want strangers driving around on their dirt roads. We managed to turn around and on the way out, managed to intercept several other people who were following their GPS to the same path as us. Even if we had made it up the muddy road, our victory would have been short lived as there was a gate across it not more than a hundred meters up the other side. Apparently Google Maps had routed us into private roads.

In the end we were safe but a little more skeptical of Google Maps. When the pavement ends unexpectedly, it is time to pull over and take a second look.

So, what was your near miss from disaster and what lesson did you learn?

[Grit_dog]

Icy road, downhill, lucky outcome that was.
So are the people from UT or somewhere without snow?

That and incidents like it are easily preventable by brake or throttle checking your traction as conditions come up. It seems so intuitive but I’m not sure how many people do it. Many folks who’ve been riding with me in the snow don’t understand what I’m doing at first.
I want to know how fast the wheels will lock up or spin out, so on a straight stretch , no car right on your 6, jam the brakes momentarily or the throttle and see what happens…

[d3500ram]

Thanks for posting that video link... Anytime that another person can learn from ones mistake and that person is able to avoid it in their situation then it is a good.

I started a topic a few years ago about LEANING FROM OTHERS' MISTAKES.
Your posted video and that thread would do noobs a world of good.

[Grit_dog]

There’s not enough bandwidth here for me to come clean!
But I’ll start the highlight reel.
Several hopeless stucks in the mountains in younger years. And some very creative extrications. One of which involved me commandeering an excavator that happened to be parked somewhat nearby.
Took the AC off the top of the old TC pulling into a car wash in Butte MT in almost 100degree weather!
Forgot to tighten one of the oil drain plugs on my Snowbike and dropped the oil and squeaked the piston 15 miles into the backcountry.

[phillyg]

Video's been around a while. I'm not perfect, but I'd never have to admit to being that stoopid because I'd have pulled off and waited for dry conditions long before he did.