Truckers Need to be Held
to Higher Standard
Monday’s Wreck a Wake-Up Call
for Dangerous Situation

When I was in my late twenties, I spent about five months in Detroit working for Accurate Welding, a big shop owned by a family friend named Larry Ulry. Larry, a gregarious blue-collar guy of large proportions and owner of one of the loudest laughs in the world, had big plans to turn young Jeff into a first-class welder. But like the modern wording of Psalm 33:10 goes, “Man plans, God laughs.”

It’s not that I didn’t try. I mean for a few weeks there I put my heart and soul into learning the intricacies of welding and tried my hand at everything from intricate tiny spot welding to intensely hot metal inert gas (MIG) welding for Larry and his company.

A fire that started when brakes overheated resulted in the total destruction of a Swift Transit tractor-trailer on N.C. 105 in Boone Monday morning. Photo by Melanie Davis

I think the trouble was the claustrophobic combination of the big welding mask and the searing heat of the welding torch. Every time I put on the helmet I could feel my heartbeat start to race and I would curse myself for having read the classics The Man in the Iron Mask and Dante’s Inferno.

The whole welding experience was one of will versus nature where poor will didn’t have a chance.

Fortunately, Larry needed another driver for his fleet of Accurate Welding delivery trucks. That was something I could do. Depending on the size of the item to be picked up or delivered, I drove pieces of metal around Detroit in anything from the size of a Chevrolet El Camino to a decent-sized flatbed truck. I got a class “C” truckers and taxi drivers license from the State of Michigan and spent the next few months learning my way around Detroit, where literally hundreds of tool and die shops are located, many of which need welding done on a daily basis.

This being the days before On Star and satellite navigation devices, I got lost on more than one occasion. One time I was driving north from Detroit and stumbled into some farm country not ten miles outside the city. It literally went from factories to corn stalks in a matter of blocks. On another occasion, I picked up a mega-ton mold from GM and was taking it back to the welding shop in a blinding snowstorm. I made it all the way back to the shop when my rear right tire went up over curb that was hidden by the snow. The entire chained-down load shifted on the flatbed and threatened to fall off the left side of the truck. We got the truck into the welding plant and used the crane to remove the mold before anything disastrous occurred.

Small problems can turn into big ones in an instant when you are driving big trucks with big loads on them and I am thankful that nothing awful happened during my tenure at Accurate Welding. Here in the mountains we are especially prone to trucking mishaps because of the strain that sharp curves and steep hills can put on a truck’s load.

That was the case when a Swift Transit tractor-trailer caught fire on N.C. 105 earlier this week, closing the road for many hours. It seems that the truck’s brakes caught fire, eventually engulfing the entire rig in flames. Fortunately, the fire caused a tire to blow out, forcing the driver to pull over and get out of the cab before the fire got out of control. In another bit of good luck, the truck was bearing a load of produce—mostly limes and apples—so the resulting fire was not as toxic as it would have been if it had been carrying asphalt or a petroleum product.

Frankly, I’m amazed that there are not more truck accidents in the High Country, especially in the summer. With the increased amount of road and building construction in our area, I am seeing younger and younger drivers, mostly men, behind the wheels of these giant vehicles. I’ve seen a number of near misses, however, particularly on N.C. 105 where I commute on a daily basis. I often see trucks pull onto the highway in dangerous situations with the drivers assuming that the cars on 105 will give up their right of way to a much bigger piece of metal.

I have also witness many trucks carrying much more than they should. Gravel, landscaping debris and garbage is constantly falling out of the back of them and if their owners think that a sign that says “Stay back 500 feet” exonerates them from responsibility for damages to other vehicles, well then, they haven’t met some of my favorite lawyers.

The current situation, especially considering our heavy summer traffic, is a recipe for disaster and I hope the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles and the individual trucking firms keep their standards as high as possible and their training vigorous and complete when they are deciding whom to put behind the wheel of a megaton truck in the High Country.