Oto Cars

This accident may have been a case of driver fatigue or perhaps health related.

The tracks leaving the road were gradual and straight with no skid marks at all.

The area where it occurred is near the end of a very long stretch of highway bordered only by fields and wooded areas for miles, a fertile area for tunnelvision to occur.

Drive Safe

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Another victim of the last winter blast . . . or was it?


The tracks from this truck were straight as the road started to take a gentle
bend. Maybe the driver was suffering from fatigue or tunnel vision and did not notice the bend till it was too late.

This region is notorious for white outs, so perhaps the driver could not see the bend in the road.

The driver may have been trying to look through a dirty or snow covered windshield.

Whatever the reason, the damage is done and it becomes another learning opportunity and an example of winter hazards drivers deal with in northern a climate.


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Oh man, what a bummer to come out to.

Oh well, at least I am at home and not driving like when I had my last flat tire. That was a very bad experience on the highway in heavy traffic. (http://road-safety.blogspot.com/2008/04/flat-tire-on-highway.html)



More on road safety at http://www.ezee.ca
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See Truck photos or my other photos at donssite.com
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Have you heard of Mesothelioma

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/
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Look out for the "gators" on the road, they're everywhere.

A "Gator" is a slang term for a piece of tire tread that has ripped loose from a damaged truck tire.

Smaller gators are not a tremendous hazard if you run over them but the larger ones can cause some problems.

Perhaps a bigger hazard is a vehicle that swerves to miss one, that's what I saw today which luckily did not cause the accident that it could have caused.

On a busy major highway just ahead of me today, one car drove over a gator at sixty miles an hour and it flipped up in front of the car behind him. That driver freaked out, swerved to miss it and almost lost control in front of lots of traffic including me.

Any kind of debris on the road can be dangerous, I once watched (seemingly in slow motion) as a large bolt was flung up by a passing pick up truck changing lanes in front of me. The bolt was spinning in the air at my eye level as I hit it at 50 mph. My windshield shattered in circular area about a foot around with a perfect clear Hex shape in the center where the head hit. It sounded like a gun shot as the safety glass did it's job and kept it from penetrating through the glass.

I felt the instinctive urge to swerve but kept the wheel firm and ducked instead. If I had swerved enough to miss it, I would have clipped the car beside me or worse.

Just another reason to leave plenty of space between vehicles on the highway, you can see any hazards further ahead of you and take safe evasive actions to avoid hitting the debris.

More on road safety at http://www.ezee.ca
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There are road rage incidents happening all around these days but this time it's deadly.

Yesterday in the early morning an incident in Milton Ontario caused a fatal accident when a car cut in front of this SUV and slammed on his brakes.

The SUV driver hit the median wall and rolled while trying to avoid the car and was ejected and killed.

Unfortunately, However trajic and unnecessary this accident was, it won't effect many people's habits after a few days when the news stories calm down.

Drivers need to relax, leave a little more space between vehicles and be a little more considerate of other drivers needs. It's stressful enough for most people just driving on the highways not to mention the dangers of radical actions taken in the heat of a moment when someone gets pissed off at another driver.

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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
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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

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
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Legislation was tabled Wednesday at Queens Park, to make speed limiters mandatory for all Transport Trucks traveling through Ontario.

Trucks would be limited to 105 Kph or about 65 Mph as an absolute maximum speed.

What most people won't immediately realize is that this is going to limit the speed of all traffic and cause enormous bottlenecks on long stretches of two lane highways like 401 from Windsor to London because trucks won't be able to pass each other anymore so they will run down the road side by side at their top speed of 105.

Meanwhile, the car traffic that likes to drive 110 to 120 Kph or more will be sitting behind trucks that can't pass each other.

What do you think?

Am I wrong?

Any Opinions?

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

I was out on the highway tonight for an hour or so, it was pretty yucky out with a little light snow but everyone was behaving nicely for the conditions and the volume of traffic, everyone was traveling around the speed limit and it was nice smooth sailing.

Everyone that is, except for one fool driving a cube van about 40 MPH in the slow lane of a three lane highway. With the slight reduction in visibility from the snow, the highway turns instantly to a sea of brake lights and turn signals with a half dozen 18 wheelers trying to get around this guy.

I don't know if he had mechanical problems or if he had a heavy or unstable load but there are several alternate parallel roads he could take if either were the case, the weather conditions surely didn't warrant his slow speed.

What a screw up this guy was, I know the driving conditions weren't perfect but his reduced speed in the volume of traffic that was driving 60MPH puts so many people at risk due to the number of evasive actions upcoming traffic is forced into making.

Once again another reason some people should not be allowed to drive anything on the highway.

More on safety at http://www.ezee.ca

Well the winter blast of snow and ice we got before Xmas has melted away with the recent warm weather we've had. Now you can see all the ugly stuff that was hiding in the snow piles. There is a good size chunk of concrete that the snowplow left at the bottom of my driveway, looking down the road from my house I don't see anything missing so I have no idea where he got it. I just hope the city picks it up.

When the snow first arrives each year, it seems like all the fools want to go play in the snow. There are so many accidents and cars in the ditches, you wonder how it can happen when traffic is just creeping along. Does everyone forget how to drive in the snow?

SLOW DOWN, KEEP YOUR DISTANCE! and maybe you'll stay out of the ditch. It's too bad the authorities can't come up with a way to test drivers in winter conditions before issuing their license, it would be a lot safer out there.

Now that the snow and ice are gone, speeds have gone back to normal on the roads and highways. Unfortunately with the increased speeds come increased damage and injuries if there is an accident. With higher speeds, you need to increase your following distance to allow room for safety.

Remember that anything can happen anywhere and anytime so be aware of what is behind you and what is beside you as well as traffic ahead of you. Keep a mental picture of where vehicles are in your blind spots, they may be there for a while and if you forget that they are there and change lanes, you may just end up as another statistic.

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