At least 15 dead in California crash - ABC reports on a gravel-hauling semi colliding with an SUV transporting 27 people 15 miles from the Mexican border

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Yep. Sluggish as hell with almost four times the expected payload.

Fun fact I read several years back: Most accidents occur close to home on weekends. Why? Because a commuter who's used to driving solo all week to and from work loads his family up for a weekend outing and now his vehicle is way heavier than normal. Driver misjudges his vehicle performance and has accidents like roll over, getting T-boned at intersections, rear ending other cars, etc. All related to vehicle weight change.

As a driver for our family business our flat bed trucks vastly varied in weight from empty boxes, empty drums, full boxes loaded all the way back and a load of full drums all the way to the back of the truck and just an empty truck bed.

For full heavy loads we had to vastly change our driving habits from the difference of a completely empty truck. Personally, I never had a serious accident but did have some mishaps. Like one night driving a load of bees (yes, commercial beekeeping) on the flatbed truck I fell asleep. Long hours at night with long days and maybe five or six hours of sleep per day. I woke up when I hit a dip on the side of the road that was designed to carry water away. Startled I pulled back onto the road too quickly and felt the entire truck rock back and forth sideways before I recovered the truck. Instantly over my CB I could hear the foreman chiding me and mocking me for almost losing the load. He stated that one side of the truck wheels completely left the road for a moment. Closest to disaster I had ever been.

On one occasion I had not been given time to retie my load and nail in some chocks around a row of syrup barrels I had on my bed. I protested and the foreman refused to listen. My stoner cousin had loaded the truck and tied it down. So, away we went and since I was the only one with a heavy truck I ended up in the back of the convoy with the rest of our team going out of sight. Got to the freeway onramp and slowed down way more than normal and took the onramp very slow. I didn't trust that load. I watched the load in my mirror as I made the turn and watched as five of the six barrels slowly slid off the side of the truck as all the ropes just popped off like magic. Might as well as not have it tied down for all the good those silly ropes did as they had not been done properly.

Those five drums being open top with those lid locks just popped open the instant they hit the road and spilled 250 gallons of heavy syrup on the onramp. I pulled over, and knowing the next batch of cars would be coming soon as the light changed I rushed out and threw the drums and lids off the road. Best I could do. Then came a flock of early morning commuters. Every one of those cars was doing either 180s, some doing full 360s and fishtailing away with some just doing wild fishtails. No one crashed much to my relief but what I saw on the faces of some of the drivers totally made me happy. Some were laughing hysterically and a couple were doing fist pumps as they sailed past me. I properly secured the remaining drum and nailed down some chocks and took off.

Got to rendezvous point a couple hours later to find the entire crew out on the parking lot and a very angry foreman who ran up and demanded to know what the eff happened to the other drums. I reminded him who tied down the load, how I had warned him the load was not proper and he had ignored me. He threatened to beat the crap out of me and I locked the door and rolled up the window. Told him to chill out and then come back for a civil discussion. No way was I taking responsibility for the problem. He jumped up, climbed across the truck bed and tried to open the other side of the cab while I put it in gear and went for the open road. I was in panic as this guy was huge. It wasn't going to be a fair fight so as he opened the passenger side door I tried knocking him off with a stop sign. Door slammed on him, cut his face, he jerked it open again and swarmed in like an angry bear. I swiveled my feet up and met him in the chest with both boots. He's still trying to get a hit in and I start spouting about lawsuits, jail time, assault charges, etc. He finally slowed down and sat back and heard me out.

Turns out we didn't have proper equipment to deliver the syrup to feed the bees and to prevent the bees from drowning in the syrup had to dump it all out on the ground. Wasted effort all around and I have no idea why he didn't plan this out properly in the first place. Too much coffee in the early AM?

Lesson learned? If a load is overweight, improperly secured, just reject and redo it. Also always take into account the weight of your load and drive well within safety margins.

Yep. Sluggish as hell with almost four times the expected payload. Fun fact I read several years back: Most accidents occur close to home on weekends. Why? Because a commuter who's used to driving solo all week to and from work loads his family up for a weekend outing and now his vehicle is way heavier than normal. Driver misjudges his vehicle performance and has accidents like roll over, getting T-boned at intersections, rear ending other cars, etc. All related to vehicle weight change. As a driver for our family business our flat bed trucks vastly varied in weight from empty boxes, empty drums, full boxes loaded all the way back and a load of full drums all the way to the back of the truck and just an empty truck bed. For full heavy loads we had to vastly change our driving habits from the difference of a completely empty truck. Personally, I never had a serious accident but did have some mishaps. Like one night driving a load of bees (yes, commercial beekeeping) on the flatbed truck I fell asleep. Long hours at night with long days and maybe five or six hours of sleep per day. I woke up when I hit a dip on the side of the road that was designed to carry water away. Startled I pulled back onto the road too quickly and felt the entire truck rock back and forth sideways before I recovered the truck. Instantly over my CB I could hear the foreman chiding me and mocking me for almost losing the load. He stated that one side of the truck wheels completely left the road for a moment. Closest to disaster I had ever been. On one occasion I had not been given time to retie my load and nail in some chocks around a row of syrup barrels I had on my bed. I protested and the foreman refused to listen. My stoner cousin had loaded the truck and tied it down. So, away we went and since I was the only one with a heavy truck I ended up in the back of the convoy with the rest of our team going out of sight. Got to the freeway onramp and slowed down way more than normal and took the onramp very slow. I didn't trust that load. I watched the load in my mirror as I made the turn and watched as five of the six barrels slowly slid off the side of the truck as all the ropes just popped off like magic. Might as well as not have it tied down for all the good those silly ropes did as they had not been done properly. Those five drums being open top with those lid locks just popped open the instant they hit the road and spilled 250 gallons of heavy syrup on the onramp. I pulled over, and knowing the next batch of cars would be coming soon as the light changed I rushed out and threw the drums and lids off the road. Best I could do. Then came a flock of early morning commuters. Every one of those cars was doing either 180s, some doing full 360s and fishtailing away with some just doing wild fishtails. No one crashed much to my relief but what I saw on the faces of some of the drivers totally made me happy. Some were laughing hysterically and a couple were doing fist pumps as they sailed past me. I properly secured the remaining drum and nailed down some chocks and took off. Got to rendezvous point a couple hours later to find the entire crew out on the parking lot and a very angry foreman who ran up and demanded to know what the eff happened to the other drums. I reminded him who tied down the load, how I had warned him the load was not proper and he had ignored me. He threatened to beat the crap out of me and I locked the door and rolled up the window. Told him to chill out and then come back for a civil discussion. No way was I taking responsibility for the problem. He jumped up, climbed across the truck bed and tried to open the other side of the cab while I put it in gear and went for the open road. I was in panic as this guy was huge. It wasn't going to be a fair fight so as he opened the passenger side door I tried knocking him off with a stop sign. Door slammed on him, cut his face, he jerked it open again and swarmed in like an angry bear. I swiveled my feet up and met him in the chest with both boots. He's still trying to get a hit in and I start spouting about lawsuits, jail time, assault charges, etc. He finally slowed down and sat back and heard me out. Turns out we didn't have proper equipment to deliver the syrup to feed the bees and to prevent the bees from drowning in the syrup had to dump it all out on the ground. Wasted effort all around and I have no idea why he didn't plan this out properly in the first place. Too much coffee in the early AM? Lesson learned? If a load is overweight, improperly secured, just reject and redo it. Also always take into account the weight of your load and drive well within safety margins.

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