Almost Lost My Truck

I was traveling on US 30 West, when I was approaching this...

As soon as I was under the lead edge of the storm wall, a wind gust blasted me from the left, and i watched in my mirror as my trailer tandems lift several inches off the ground!

With only 12,500 lbs of garlic in the box, I had a vision of being on my side, or upside down. I hit my hazards, and gradually slowed down and steared toward the shoulder of the road. Every instinct told me to slam on the breaks. I was lucky that it was a wide shoulder. A driver behind me got on the CB and offered to buy me a new pair of boxers, and an attaboy for keeping the rubber side down. We putzed along at 20 mph with our hazards on for about 10 miles, before the winds let up, and the rain died down.

It amazes me, that up until I hit the storm, there was barely any wind, and then WHAM! A gust nearly took me out. Once this adrenaline works it's way through my system, sleep will be very easy. I wonder if I will see the wizard in my dream.

Wow, really glad to hear you got out of that one unscathed! Congrats!

Two things about that:

1) As you now know, the most severe winds are always at the leading edge of a storm. That's where the tornadoes form.

2) Always, always watch the weather radar when you're going through the Midwest in the summer. That's a bare minimum. I think realistically you should always be watching the weather radar at all times. The same way you're always scanning the road all around you, you should always be aware of the weather all around you.

In the Midwest those summer super cells are usually very short lived but deadly. You can almost always see them coming on radar in plenty of time. When you see red on the radar in the Midwest in the summer you get that thing parked and let it pass. Twenty minutes later you'll be driving in calm, clear weather and sunny skies.

Wow im glad to hear things turned out ok! Wouldn't have happened to be in Iowa near Marshalltown would it? Their downtown district got leveled. 27 tornados statewide yesterday. Had the tornados happened today one of our drivers would've been there, as well as in Pella iowa where the Vermeer plant got a direct hit.

Wow, really glad to hear you got out of that one unscathed! Congrats!

Two things about that:

1) As you now know, the most severe winds are always at the leading edge of a storm. That's where the tornadoes form.

2) Always, always watch the weather radar when you're going through the Midwest in the summer. That's a bare minimum. I think realistically you should always be watching the weather radar at all times. The same way you're always scanning the road all around you, you should always be aware of the weather all around you.

In the Midwest those summer super cells are usually very short lived but deadly. You can almost always see them coming on radar in plenty of time. When you see red on the radar in the Midwest in the summer you get that thing parked and let it pass. Twenty minutes later you'll be driving in calm, clear weather and sunny skies.

Thanks Brett. I use Radar Now, and Storm 4 radar. I even looked at them, and knew that I was going to drive into it. I definitely underestimated the storm. Lesson Learned!!! I will not make that mistake again.

Wow im glad to hear things turned out ok! Wouldn't have happened to be in Iowa near Marshalltown would it? Their downtown district got leveled. 27 tornados statewide yesterday. Had the tornados happened today one of our drivers would've been there, as well as in Pella iowa where the Vermeer plant got a direct hit.

Thank you. I am in Indiana, at one of my favorite Pilots. Heading into Iowa.. My company is based in Oxford, IA. I usually take this route, to avoid 80/90. It is usually much more relaxing a drive. Today it gave me some excitement.

Good job, glad you made it out okay. Thankfully I have never had that happen. I bet when it does it will make my gut check.

Glad to hear you did the right thing and trusted training and experience to avoid the gut jerk reaction of slamming on the brakes. I am from Iowa and have driven in super storms and snow and ice storms.

Glad you made it through safe and sound. Hopefully people will learn that lesson from your post.

Some of us come from areas where fires and earthquakes are the only major hazards lol.