An 18 wheeler broadsided a school bus Monday morning sending 15 students to the hospital in Jacksonville, Texas. 29 children ages 10-12 were on the bus when it was impacted by the 18 wheeler truck.
The school bus was preparing to pull into the school parking area when the 18 wheeler ran a red light. “ The truck driver said he saw the light turn red – he was just going too fast to stop in time. He had obviously tried to stop because he was fully loaded and if he had hit the bus at 55 mph, he would have torn straight through the bus,” police said. The 18 wheeler driver was ticketed for failure to control speed. The school bus had to be towed from the scene.
In an unrelated accident, an 18 wheeler flipped over on I-10 westbound, blocking all westbound lanes of I-10 in El Paso, Texas. And in Birmingham, Alabama, Interstate 59 south was shut down when an 18 wheeler overturned spilling anti-freeze on the Interstate roadway.
Driving the roadways it appears that there are more 18 wheelers on the roadway than ever before. Keep your distance, keep a lookout, and drive defensively.
18 wheelers kill people because you can leave your job today, walk right out of the fast food restaurant during your shift, and in 6 weeks deliver America’s goods all over the country. If as a nation we didn’t demand everything newer, faster, and cheaper, trucking companies wouldn’t choose to hire disposable drivers. What, that one wrecked and killed a family of four? Fire him. He can go back to work in the service industry. We’ll just make/hire another. We, as consumers, don’t understand how commerce works, so we don’t get the ramifications when we cut costs. Quality and safety aren’t important. We get less when we pay for less, never understanding the overall cost is much greater.