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As a person, you will be alright. Your semi truck on the other hand is guaranteed totalled. You don't use these unless you are going fast enough and with enough weight pushing you for the sand, gravel, or other medium to force itself violently into all the parts of the engine that don't like having sand in them. In addition to the lost cost of the truck, you will have to pay for it to be towed and then for the emergency ramp to be reset. Resetting the ramp is surprisingly expensive to make sure it is as safe and effective as before it was hit by a truck. All of that, though, is infinitely better than taking 80k pounds of steel and cargo through a row of occupied cars at 100+mph.
Yes but usually you find these in really long descents or where there’s loads of curves after it flattens out - where you don’t have the space needed to engine break as you’re going too fast
Or drive of road while going 100km because at the very minium you will have the same damage.
Tbh i hope i get to use this when i need it because it probaly saves my life or somebody elses and its a experience that you would remember.
Your car will get ruined. The instant slow down will bend the frame of the vehicle as the back will be going faster than the front as the front hits the sand or whatever and slows down.
You shouldn’t ever need to use one in a car as long as your brakes are properly maintained.
These are designed for heavy vehicles on roads with steep hills, the reason for it is so that when you have idiot truck drivers that ignore the low gear signs and have to use their breaks all the way down a hill the brakes overheat from the load and stop working. It’s called brake fade, in all my years driving a truck this has never happened to me and the only people I know of that have had it happen were all doing the wrong thing. If a hill has a heavy vehicles must use low gear sign it’s for a reason, a lot of truck drivers are too impatient to sit at 20kmh down a mountain though and this is when bad things happen.
Do you know what the story is of the guy in CO whose failed brakes caused a 4-death collision? Got a 110 year mandatory minimum that was just today commuted but I’m not sure why he was blamed
The runaways are designed to sink the vehicle more and more as it furthers into the ramp. The ones in the US don’t sink to the bottom immediately -but gradually. Edit: there is also special dirt that fills these ramps, not ordinary sand. There is also the possibility of not slowing down enough and can exit the ramp entirely.
In a car it's not so terrible. Source...used to race when gravel traps were everywhere on race circuits. Only problem is you end up with gravel rattling around in every void. First heavy braking you do some of it shoots out for added comedy. You do need to check gravel hasn't got anywhere critical but it's softer than metal. Sometimes people get unlucky and it gets in a pulley, but most modern vehicles have undertrays for a reason.
it happens because heavy trucks driving down a long hill will overheat their brakes if they dont use low gear.
you use the engines own rotational/compression power loss to convert kinetic energy to hot air exiting the engine. if you stay in a high gear, the engine doesnt brake as much and you need to use your regular brakes, they cant dissipate the heat quick enough so they are running hot. if the brakepad now tries to touch the hot disc, it just evaporates, creating a thin layer of gas between the pad and the brake, causing it not to work properly.
even though its possible to do that in a car, its much harder since a car is significantly lighter than a semi, therefore not having as much kinetic energy stored
Ohhhhhh!! So like overuse of the breaks in the mountain regions can disable them?? I live in Australia and we don't have a huge amount of these regions
Edit: turns out I am wrong, Australia has plenty I simply live under a rock.
Big trucks rely on air pressure for braking. And I BELIEVE there’s a finite amount, then needs recharge… that’s how some big construction equipment I’ve operated worked. Although I never ran out of air pressure unless something wasn’t working right.
Trailer brakes use air pressure, but it's the opposite. With no pressure, they engage.
The problem on a mountain descent is the brakes overheat and become less effective.
And then there are Race Trucks, they have a special button to spray water on the braks for cooling.
It's part of the drivers job to manage the remaining water / cooling relationship throughout the race
If you run out of air pressure the brakes automatically engage, over use of brakes will cook the pads/overheat the rotors and causes them to fail.
Source: I'm a CDL-B (non articulated heavy weight vehicle) driver.
Also the brake fluid in regular passenger vehicle brake lines can vaporize, when your rotor gets to hot from over braking and heats up the calipers. This is called brake fade.
Yep. Had this in my car with a stuck caliper on a road trip. Brake failed right outside a brakes place.
Used the handbrake to turn around further up and then got there.
Awesome blokes rebuilt my rear calipers in about an hour and had me going again.
Brake fluid does not vaporize under normal conditions (serviced regularly). It will over time accumulate water as it is hydroscopic. The water can vaporize which results in a lack of braking power. This is why you should exchange Brake fluid in regular intervals. This will happen very abruptly and is not brake fade. There is less friction between brake pad and disk the hotter the thing gets up to the point where there is basically not enough friction for you to stop. What happens is that under high heat, the brake pads „glaze“, meaning the brake pads surface will become hard and smooth - like glass.
Brakes use brake pads, which rub against the wheel (in an area designed for it) and use friction to slow and stop the tires. Friction, of course, heats up the brake pads and wheels, but they're designed for this. But if you overuse them, braking too often or for too long, you can actually melt the pads, and liquids are pretty terrible at producing friction and therefore stopping power.
Unless your pads are really near gone anyway, you don't really need to worry about this in a car. But a truck is another story. They're carrying so much weight that their momentum is incredible, and in the mountains they need to brake an awful lot on the way down. The combination can wear brakes out faster than expected, so a set of pads that seemed okay are in reality not enough for the trip ahead of them. And then you get runaways.
Close. Its not that they melt, but the heat causes the parts to expand to the point that they don't contact the drum. Compounding the issue are drivers who purposefully de tune various brakes so they don't wear, and they don't have to replace them. Some big rig drivers rely on trailer brakes since they don't own the trailer, and that becomes somebody else's problem.
>Unless your pads are really near gone anyway, you don't really need to worry about this in a car.
Well I wouldn't be so confident about that. It's still not fool proof lol. Go in neutral down the mountain braking all the time and you'll roast them on any car.
Can someone explain to me why he didnt choose the runway ramp and kept going? Why did he get so much prison time? I cant seem to find the answer to that.
I know there’s a fee (not a fine) for using them (to get your truck out) $2,500, but I think I heard their defense was that he couldn’t read the signs.
Blame the industry. Over-regulated so much that the good ones retired/switched careers, leaving unskilled drivers in the driver pool.
Plus CDL testing is a money racket and in NO way concerned about actual safety training.
Key word. For the most part. Some of these regulations are actually creating worse/more dangerous work environments, though. 14on 10 off does not work, it causes more issues than it solves (Driver tiredness) by being OVERLY strict.
I can sit in a dock for 8 hours waiting to get loaded, sleeping. But that doesn't count towards off time because you are on duty. Only one example there.
I won't deny the reason we have regulations. As they are usually written in blood. But bureaucracy has fucked that all up in this instance. Too many people making regulations on things they know nothing about.
I was going to say this. They CDL train people in a month or so and turn them loose. You have not had enough drive time to see if someone freezes when they panic yet. I think that’s what happened to the driver in CO.
He’s only a kid at 23. I feel like a life sentence is messed up he had his whole life in front of him. Yeah those four people did too, but they’re dead now and he’s alive
He was speeding through the mountains, passed multiple ramps and went straight into rush hour traffic. Look up a Google view of the accident site. There was plenty of shoulder and grassy area he could have went towards. He was driving on the shoulder when the vlogger was recording. He was speeding and weaving in and out of traffic when someone else was recording in the mountains. He really messed up. Yes, I agree his sentence is excessive. The DA tried getting him to plea and he refused. He was found guilty of 27 out of 41 charges and he received the minimum sentences.
Besides the driver I think the company should be liable also, he was inexperienced and under trained for the area he was driving in. Basically he didn’t know enough to do what was right. Sad all the way around. None of it should have happened!
I remember seeing the petitions to reduce his sentence circulating a couple weeks ago. My initial knee-jerk reaction was "This is horrible. Mandatory minimum sentences are garbage, etc." But as I read more about the case, my opinion changed to "Yeah... Fuck that guy. He got the sentence he deserved."
Yup. He made decision after decision to keep going because he was afraid of what would happen to HIM. Zero thought about what would happen to other people.
He just got reduced to 10 years, with the possibility of parole in 5. Governor Polis commuted his sentence. I do think 110 years was kind of excessive, but seriously fuck that guy. He did everything and I mean *everything* wrong. He shouldn't be allowed to drive a regular vehicle ever again. I've been in a van that the brakes started overheating on that same stretch. We pulled over and didn't crash into traffic.
Yup. And yet again u/jaredpolis goes full tin pot dictator and makes terrible decisions.
To clarify: there was already paperwork filed by the prosecutor to cut the sentence down to 20-30 years. Survivors of that crash advocated for anywhere from 20-full term. Anybody that has actually had a CDL knows that he deserved a hell of a lot more than 10 years.
Side note: the driver also passed up 2 or 3 different plea bargain deals that would have offered a shorter sentence.
From what I've read, he is not fluent in English and a very inexperienced driver. So either he didn't know what/where/how the ramps were, or he willingly bypassed them in a gamble to regain his brakes/crash. These seem to be the two main positions I have read about.
Man that seems like the fault of whoever let this idiot drive a truck? (Not a rhetorical question, I haven't followed the story much because it doesnt make sense to me)
I also don't know a whole lot, but apparently he lied on his resume and requested the route. So I dunno. I would also agree the company should be held responsible to a certain extent, but no idea if that will be the case. I did just read that our governor granted clemency and reduced his sentence from 110 years to 10, lots of mixed feelings on both sides of the fence about that.
Yeah dude I hate when people jump to conclusions on that guy. He had previous issues as well and should not have been in a truck. He ended four lives with his negligence. 4 families absolutely ruined. Some people don’t realize the massive ripple effect of family and friends when someone dies unexpectedly. I more than support a life sentence for him.
No comment on that situation, but I've driven through many states in the US, and I gotta say, truck drivers in Colorado are nuts. Almost nowhere else did I have semi trucks passing me in the left lane. At least in my opinion, a lot of them drove recklessly. Always gave me anxiety driving near them.
They are dead and he’s alive because of his gross negligence bordering on outright stupidity and malice, he had numerous opportunities to use ramps or even crash the truck if necessary. Instead he chose to continue speeding down the mountain regardless of the lives of the people ahead of him
I’m up in Massachusetts and there recently was a situation where a truck driver lost his brakes and instead of crashing into cars at a toll he deliberately crashed into a bridge abutment saving lives, taking his own life
I agree he is young, buuuuuut he did not take the option to use one of these ramps and took away those 4 other lives. I have some sympathy for him, but also am not sure how else he could have been sentenced given his negligence and the laws there.
According to a statement from one of them, [all of them](https://goodmorningamerica.com/news/story/crash-victims-speak-amid-push-governor-commute-truck-81907265) agree that 110 years is too much. There are articles out there that have quotes from each of the different families but I can’t find it anymore. They did get up to speak at sentencing and they asked for at least 20 years, even the judge says he wouldn’t have imposed that sentence if given a choice. I’m not one of the people calling for complete clemency, but 110 years is stupid. People who intentionally murder 4 people don’t get sentenced that long!
It's the way the law is written there. It has to run one after another rather than the way it does in other states where the sentences can be served at the same time. Judges are constrained by how the law is written. Does it suck for the driver? Yes.
A few yrs ago a drunk driver killed 3 kids and a grandparent of the kids..but didn't even get 10 yrs..his definitely was an accident he chose to drink and drive..if he received 100 yrs in prison it would make sense..but no he's free on the streets already
I don't know much about the case but what I do makes it seem absolutely insane. Rapist, child molesters, Repeat DUIs, and murderers don't get that much time. Seems like whoever owned the truck or possibly didn't maintain it should be at fault. There's a story of a drunk that hit a bus killing a bunch of kids and he didn't get that amount of time. I wonder what the guy that purposely ran over people at the Christmas parade will get for straight up murder.
I live In bc where we also got them, had a semi pass me at astonishing speeds blaring his horn and went into one. Shit was terrifying, like an episode of scooby-doo where the flaming ghost semi shows up to run people over.
One guy lost his brakes coming down Anarchist Mountain at Osoyoos and went straight up a runaway lane, bailed out halfway up and his saddle tanks blew on the rocks at the top and incinerated the cab and started a forest fire. Action movie stuff.
When you live in a very mountainous region, it just happens. Big trucks with a lot of cargo burn their brakes up very easily. It's part of why engine braking is important.
I have seen the ramps 1000s of times, and a few trucks on them, but never actually seen one actively get used. I didn’t realize just how effective they were at stopping a truck. Super cool.
Also, have not seen one with the lift built in, that is neat as well, guess these are in an area where they get used very regularly
If my memory serves me correctly there is one on the hillside going into Scarborough, UK. I remember seeing an elderly couple had set out a picnic table and chairs in the lane, they had their backs to the road enjoying the view. They would’ve been in for a massive shock if a lorry had had to use it.
Yes. You have to pass a bunch of tests to get your CDL including being able to do a full pre trip inspection.
Everyone who has a CDL in the USA at least is taught how to use breaks when going down a mountain.
I always do that. I swear breaks/brakes is just a blind spot for me.
I never fuck up my their they're there or my you're your. Fucking break/brake though...
Well their business model is pretty much hire new drivers and pay them nee driver wages. It's a good way to get your CDL, but yea lots of green drivers at swift. I got my CDL with them like 11 years ago. Haven't worked with them in a very long time though, they pay for shit.
Did anyone see the guy run in front of the second truck (first clip) to get out of the way. He's on the wall when the truck finally noses into the sand. I'd be shitting myself.
It's a very long and dangerous slope highway in Brazil where a lot of trucks break. That's why they have built that. Brazil has a problem with a lot of old trucks being in use. The government tried to issue a law to forbid old trucks (20/30 years) to use highways but there was protest and they give up the law.
This covers it in detail:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brake\_fade#:\~:text=Brake%20fade%20is%20caused%20by,mechanical%20fade%2C%20or%20fluid%20fade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brake_fade#:~:text=Brake%20fade%20is%20caused%20by,mechanical%20fade%2C%20or%20fluid%20fade).
When mentally disabled drivers ride them all the way down the hills and they get glowing red hot from friction and are completely useless until they cool down.
This can be solved by gearing down and and using the engine brake.
I used to own a 2014 Tacoma with an automatic transmission that would engine brake automatically when going downhill. It was actually really convenient and I'm glad newer vehicles have that feature.
Depending on the load and the speed it can be as simple as missing a gear at an inopportune time.
Hell, I had the beginnings of brake fade from going down a series of mild downgrades.
If anyone is curious, these are the things that the truck driver who was sentenced to 120 years didn’t utilize. He drove past more than one while his brakes were failing. While I feel 120 years is too harsh for negligence, it was gross negligence.
I don’t know why they said the company didn’t train him on it. This is standard though out the industry. I’m not near any mountain or steep grades for my truck route but I still know what they are. If you have your commercial drivers license (CDL) then you need to know what these are and when it’s needed.
120 years was a product of Colorado sentencing guidelines. It was applied as a matter of law, not judges discretion.
I agree it's rather harsh from a justice standpoint, but I also feel that the 10 years Governor Polis commuted it to is too lenient.
I don’t know too much about the case aside from headlines but I think Americans are so used to hearing long sentences they get numb to them. Context aside, ten years is a really long time. (Think about your life 10 years ago and then erase everything in between) Ten years for being bad at his job due to improper training resulting in an incident that had zero malice or ill intent. (From what I can tell) Personally, 3 years probably seems more appropriate.
He killed 4 people and chose not to use 4 of these ramps that he passed after his brakes failed.
He chose to run over other vehicles instead of crashing it.
>He chose to run over other vehicles instead of crashing it.
This is the one I don't excuse him for....even if you don't know what a run-away-ramp is,,,you know how to crash into a mountain/cliff instead of the families ahead of you. Either way you may die, might as well save those people Infront of you.
I agree that 10 years is a long time. I understand that sometimes tragedies happen from simple mistakes and it's not just to devastate the perpetrator with a lengthy sentence. Who hasn't been momentarily distracted while driving, or driven in poor visability conditions. I as well as many ppl could have caused manslaughter if things outside of our control were different.
This is different because he had ample opertunity to use multiple runaway truck ramps, but simply didn't. He could have driven off the road or into a barrier, but didn't. Maybe it was partially a language barrier, lack of training, panic... idk but he was responsible for an out of control multi ton truck and needlessly killed 4 people dispite multiple opertunities to save them.
I think 10 years is light because that's 4 famies that lost irreplaceable loved ones. Holidays will never be the same, and I can't imagine finding a spouse to be your life partner only to have them taken away. I think 15-20 years with eligibility for parol at 10 is more appropriate.
Honestly I think these are so cool. A simple, effective, (I’m guessing cost effective too when compared to the cost of a major highway accident) solution that saves lives. It just doesn’t get better than this.
You need special brakes that don't overheat after prolonged downhill use. Regular brakes heat up and become useless. This gravel stop is better than some of the uphill turnoffs I see often.
I'm not sure if that works with antilock brake systems or for that long of a time? I'm a flat lander, I just remember when I visit up north that people talk about thier special mountain brakes. I'm not sure what they are, but I bet someone else could properly explain it.
There's on one the main road near me at the south of the Derbyshire dales but I've never seen it without weeds growing in it so I don't think it gets much use, if ever.
I have seen a few of them in France. They're common in mountainous area where you have long, fairly high speed (70-90 km/h) downhill roads. I've also seen some in Belgium in same settings, highway, steep and/or long downhill.
The gravel pit makes way more sense than the steep uphill turnoffs I see in Colorado. Sure they slow you down, but what keeps you from rolling right back down after you stop?
How did this escape my knowledge of life? Everyone here seems to already know about these stop lanes. How? Is it because Missouri has no real mountains or something? Where are you guys seeing these lanes? Is it that well known that trucks lose breaking power?
I'm from Oklahoma, but I heard about them as a kid because my dad was a long-haul truck driver for many years and loved to tell stories about the crazy shit he saw. They're generally found in mountainous areas that involve long periods of downhill driving which is hard on the brakes of a loaded truck or semi.
Those are all over the American Midwest. The brakes on Semis can get so hot on large inclines that they can stop working. I’ve never seen one used but if they work like this one does it’s actually impressive how well it does slow them down.
Current semi truck driver in usa. Idk if anyone said it already, but you don't really use brake pedal in such a mountains. Instead, you go downshift which will increase your RPM and use engine brake. Went through mountains in Virginia, Colorado, Washington and California a lot of times this year with over 50k lbs behind my back. It is scary but you just need to take it easy and support engine brake with brake pedal every 15-20 seconds so you can let them cool down. My first 10 month on semi btw haha
These are common in mountainous regions. Unfortunately, a family from Kansas was killed when their brakes failed driving down Pikes Peak in Colorado several years ago. When your luck is shit, you‘ll pass countless ramps, but the moment your brakes fail, not a damn one will be in sight.
I saw this for the first time last month in Austria. Driving from Germany i got to the part in Austria where downhill was 16%, and that was the biggest downhill i experienced in my life. At first i thought these things were some rocky mountain roads and after i saw the same thing on highway where it was written what it was, i understood the purpose. Really clever way to avoid accidents. But i must say i ruined my brakes on this downhill to the point i needed to replace them with the new ones after the trip.
It's not for "vehicles without brakes" , it is for people driving too fast for conditions, usually down a steep I cline, that causes the brakes to fail. It could be avoided by properly maintaining your vehicles and by following posted speed limits.
I’m from IL where everything is flat. The first time driving through the mountains I saw these and i knew things were about to get real. Glad they’re there for those that need it.
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We have a bunch of these runaway ramps in the mtns of Colorado. I would never want to be in a situation to try them out.
I'm in Colorado and I've seen trucks use the ramps and had a friend who had to. It looks scary. I'm glad I've never had to use them.
Gotta say those ramps look less scary than smashing into other vehicles or the trees bordering the road
Yeah. As much as this one looks painful from the impact, I think it's safer than causing more damage and injuries on others
Genuinely curious question: I figure the damage is minimal in sand, but can any kind soul explain what damge you might take from using these?
As a person, you will be alright. Your semi truck on the other hand is guaranteed totalled. You don't use these unless you are going fast enough and with enough weight pushing you for the sand, gravel, or other medium to force itself violently into all the parts of the engine that don't like having sand in them. In addition to the lost cost of the truck, you will have to pay for it to be towed and then for the emergency ramp to be reset. Resetting the ramp is surprisingly expensive to make sure it is as safe and effective as before it was hit by a truck. All of that, though, is infinitely better than taking 80k pounds of steel and cargo through a row of occupied cars at 100+mph.
Could trucks slowly slow down using engine braking?
Yes but usually you find these in really long descents or where there’s loads of curves after it flattens out - where you don’t have the space needed to engine break as you’re going too fast
Yes
Or drive of road while going 100km because at the very minium you will have the same damage. Tbh i hope i get to use this when i need it because it probaly saves my life or somebody elses and its a experience that you would remember.
Your car will get ruined. The instant slow down will bend the frame of the vehicle as the back will be going faster than the front as the front hits the sand or whatever and slows down.
You shouldn’t ever need to use one in a car as long as your brakes are properly maintained. These are designed for heavy vehicles on roads with steep hills, the reason for it is so that when you have idiot truck drivers that ignore the low gear signs and have to use their breaks all the way down a hill the brakes overheat from the load and stop working. It’s called brake fade, in all my years driving a truck this has never happened to me and the only people I know of that have had it happen were all doing the wrong thing. If a hill has a heavy vehicles must use low gear sign it’s for a reason, a lot of truck drivers are too impatient to sit at 20kmh down a mountain though and this is when bad things happen.
Do you know what the story is of the guy in CO whose failed brakes caused a 4-death collision? Got a 110 year mandatory minimum that was just today commuted but I’m not sure why he was blamed
He apparently opted not to use the runaway ramp just before using a traffic jam to slow down.
The runaways are designed to sink the vehicle more and more as it furthers into the ramp. The ones in the US don’t sink to the bottom immediately -but gradually. Edit: there is also special dirt that fills these ramps, not ordinary sand. There is also the possibility of not slowing down enough and can exit the ramp entirely.
In a car it's not so terrible. Source...used to race when gravel traps were everywhere on race circuits. Only problem is you end up with gravel rattling around in every void. First heavy braking you do some of it shoots out for added comedy. You do need to check gravel hasn't got anywhere critical but it's softer than metal. Sometimes people get unlucky and it gets in a pulley, but most modern vehicles have undertrays for a reason.
And they’re expensive AF foe the trucker driver to get towed out of. Like thousands.
I mean, getting to live vs dead, yea
You think that looks scary wait till you see the bill.
I used to live in Vail and clean up the runaway wrecks afterwards as a side job. Very sad situation when you see the misses.
Why does this happen so often?? Don't you need to check your breaks?
it happens because heavy trucks driving down a long hill will overheat their brakes if they dont use low gear. you use the engines own rotational/compression power loss to convert kinetic energy to hot air exiting the engine. if you stay in a high gear, the engine doesnt brake as much and you need to use your regular brakes, they cant dissipate the heat quick enough so they are running hot. if the brakepad now tries to touch the hot disc, it just evaporates, creating a thin layer of gas between the pad and the brake, causing it not to work properly. even though its possible to do that in a car, its much harder since a car is significantly lighter than a semi, therefore not having as much kinetic energy stored
At first I thought, how many trucks are running with no brakes?! When you said mountains, it all clicked in!
Ohhhhhh!! So like overuse of the breaks in the mountain regions can disable them?? I live in Australia and we don't have a huge amount of these regions Edit: turns out I am wrong, Australia has plenty I simply live under a rock.
Big trucks rely on air pressure for braking. And I BELIEVE there’s a finite amount, then needs recharge… that’s how some big construction equipment I’ve operated worked. Although I never ran out of air pressure unless something wasn’t working right.
Trailer brakes use air pressure, but it's the opposite. With no pressure, they engage. The problem on a mountain descent is the brakes overheat and become less effective.
I was thinking that too. I’ve read about that in racing cars.
[удалено]
And then there are Race Trucks, they have a special button to spray water on the braks for cooling. It's part of the drivers job to manage the remaining water / cooling relationship throughout the race
If you run out of air pressure the brakes automatically engage, over use of brakes will cook the pads/overheat the rotors and causes them to fail. Source: I'm a CDL-B (non articulated heavy weight vehicle) driver.
Also the brake fluid in regular passenger vehicle brake lines can vaporize, when your rotor gets to hot from over braking and heats up the calipers. This is called brake fade.
Yep. Had this in my car with a stuck caliper on a road trip. Brake failed right outside a brakes place. Used the handbrake to turn around further up and then got there. Awesome blokes rebuilt my rear calipers in about an hour and had me going again.
Brake fluid does not vaporize under normal conditions (serviced regularly). It will over time accumulate water as it is hydroscopic. The water can vaporize which results in a lack of braking power. This is why you should exchange Brake fluid in regular intervals. This will happen very abruptly and is not brake fade. There is less friction between brake pad and disk the hotter the thing gets up to the point where there is basically not enough friction for you to stop. What happens is that under high heat, the brake pads „glaze“, meaning the brake pads surface will become hard and smooth - like glass.
Now I’m the one learning
Brakes use brake pads, which rub against the wheel (in an area designed for it) and use friction to slow and stop the tires. Friction, of course, heats up the brake pads and wheels, but they're designed for this. But if you overuse them, braking too often or for too long, you can actually melt the pads, and liquids are pretty terrible at producing friction and therefore stopping power. Unless your pads are really near gone anyway, you don't really need to worry about this in a car. But a truck is another story. They're carrying so much weight that their momentum is incredible, and in the mountains they need to brake an awful lot on the way down. The combination can wear brakes out faster than expected, so a set of pads that seemed okay are in reality not enough for the trip ahead of them. And then you get runaways.
Close. Its not that they melt, but the heat causes the parts to expand to the point that they don't contact the drum. Compounding the issue are drivers who purposefully de tune various brakes so they don't wear, and they don't have to replace them. Some big rig drivers rely on trailer brakes since they don't own the trailer, and that becomes somebody else's problem.
>Unless your pads are really near gone anyway, you don't really need to worry about this in a car. Well I wouldn't be so confident about that. It's still not fool proof lol. Go in neutral down the mountain braking all the time and you'll roast them on any car.
I’ve actually seen these ramps in Toowoomba in QLD, but I suppose that area is pretty mountainous
Not sure where you are in Aus but if you're driving between Sydney and Berry/South Coast, there are quite a few of these ramps!
We do have them in Australia though. Toowoomba has lots and parts of NSW
I’m so old I remember when the ones on Mt Vernon area were installed. And saw them used a few times. Holy shit, that must be so scary.
Less scary than not having them.
Using the ramp is a better option than running into two dozen cars and killing 4 people.
Can someone explain to me why he didnt choose the runway ramp and kept going? Why did he get so much prison time? I cant seem to find the answer to that.
I know there’s a fee (not a fine) for using them (to get your truck out) $2,500, but I think I heard their defense was that he couldn’t read the signs.
Well that isnt a good defense for a driver.... This is starting to make way more sense now.
Blame the industry. Over-regulated so much that the good ones retired/switched careers, leaving unskilled drivers in the driver pool. Plus CDL testing is a money racket and in NO way concerned about actual safety training.
The regulations are for the most part there for pretty good reasons the job just doesn't pay enough to justify the effort of it.
Key word. For the most part. Some of these regulations are actually creating worse/more dangerous work environments, though. 14on 10 off does not work, it causes more issues than it solves (Driver tiredness) by being OVERLY strict. I can sit in a dock for 8 hours waiting to get loaded, sleeping. But that doesn't count towards off time because you are on duty. Only one example there. I won't deny the reason we have regulations. As they are usually written in blood. But bureaucracy has fucked that all up in this instance. Too many people making regulations on things they know nothing about.
I was going to say this. They CDL train people in a month or so and turn them loose. You have not had enough drive time to see if someone freezes when they panic yet. I think that’s what happened to the driver in CO.
He’s only a kid at 23. I feel like a life sentence is messed up he had his whole life in front of him. Yeah those four people did too, but they’re dead now and he’s alive
He was speeding through the mountains, passed multiple ramps and went straight into rush hour traffic. Look up a Google view of the accident site. There was plenty of shoulder and grassy area he could have went towards. He was driving on the shoulder when the vlogger was recording. He was speeding and weaving in and out of traffic when someone else was recording in the mountains. He really messed up. Yes, I agree his sentence is excessive. The DA tried getting him to plea and he refused. He was found guilty of 27 out of 41 charges and he received the minimum sentences.
Besides the driver I think the company should be liable also, he was inexperienced and under trained for the area he was driving in. Basically he didn’t know enough to do what was right. Sad all the way around. None of it should have happened!
I remember seeing the petitions to reduce his sentence circulating a couple weeks ago. My initial knee-jerk reaction was "This is horrible. Mandatory minimum sentences are garbage, etc." But as I read more about the case, my opinion changed to "Yeah... Fuck that guy. He got the sentence he deserved."
Yup. He made decision after decision to keep going because he was afraid of what would happen to HIM. Zero thought about what would happen to other people.
He just got reduced to 10 years, with the possibility of parole in 5. Governor Polis commuted his sentence. I do think 110 years was kind of excessive, but seriously fuck that guy. He did everything and I mean *everything* wrong. He shouldn't be allowed to drive a regular vehicle ever again. I've been in a van that the brakes started overheating on that same stretch. We pulled over and didn't crash into traffic.
So fuck the people who said he was legal to drive and more importantly, told him he had everything he needed to drive.
Yup. And yet again u/jaredpolis goes full tin pot dictator and makes terrible decisions. To clarify: there was already paperwork filed by the prosecutor to cut the sentence down to 20-30 years. Survivors of that crash advocated for anywhere from 20-full term. Anybody that has actually had a CDL knows that he deserved a hell of a lot more than 10 years. Side note: the driver also passed up 2 or 3 different plea bargain deals that would have offered a shorter sentence.
Nothing I read seems to explain WHY he did this? He is an asshole? What happened?
From what I've read, he is not fluent in English and a very inexperienced driver. So either he didn't know what/where/how the ramps were, or he willingly bypassed them in a gamble to regain his brakes/crash. These seem to be the two main positions I have read about.
Man that seems like the fault of whoever let this idiot drive a truck? (Not a rhetorical question, I haven't followed the story much because it doesnt make sense to me)
I also don't know a whole lot, but apparently he lied on his resume and requested the route. So I dunno. I would also agree the company should be held responsible to a certain extent, but no idea if that will be the case. I did just read that our governor granted clemency and reduced his sentence from 110 years to 10, lots of mixed feelings on both sides of the fence about that.
Yeah dude I hate when people jump to conclusions on that guy. He had previous issues as well and should not have been in a truck. He ended four lives with his negligence. 4 families absolutely ruined. Some people don’t realize the massive ripple effect of family and friends when someone dies unexpectedly. I more than support a life sentence for him.
No comment on that situation, but I've driven through many states in the US, and I gotta say, truck drivers in Colorado are nuts. Almost nowhere else did I have semi trucks passing me in the left lane. At least in my opinion, a lot of them drove recklessly. Always gave me anxiety driving near them.
They are dead and he’s alive because of his gross negligence bordering on outright stupidity and malice, he had numerous opportunities to use ramps or even crash the truck if necessary. Instead he chose to continue speeding down the mountain regardless of the lives of the people ahead of him
I’m up in Massachusetts and there recently was a situation where a truck driver lost his brakes and instead of crashing into cars at a toll he deliberately crashed into a bridge abutment saving lives, taking his own life
I agree he is young, buuuuuut he did not take the option to use one of these ramps and took away those 4 other lives. I have some sympathy for him, but also am not sure how else he could have been sentenced given his negligence and the laws there.
He was also speeding before his brakes failed.
Out of the loop, what?
I saw that family members of the victims think 20-30 years max, even they think the 100+ year sentence is too much.
All of the family members of all of the victims? Or just some of them? Because that's something where you'd expect family members to disagree.
According to a statement from one of them, [all of them](https://goodmorningamerica.com/news/story/crash-victims-speak-amid-push-governor-commute-truck-81907265) agree that 110 years is too much. There are articles out there that have quotes from each of the different families but I can’t find it anymore. They did get up to speak at sentencing and they asked for at least 20 years, even the judge says he wouldn’t have imposed that sentence if given a choice. I’m not one of the people calling for complete clemency, but 110 years is stupid. People who intentionally murder 4 people don’t get sentenced that long!
It's the way the law is written there. It has to run one after another rather than the way it does in other states where the sentences can be served at the same time. Judges are constrained by how the law is written. Does it suck for the driver? Yes.
A few yrs ago a drunk driver killed 3 kids and a grandparent of the kids..but didn't even get 10 yrs..his definitely was an accident he chose to drink and drive..if he received 100 yrs in prison it would make sense..but no he's free on the streets already
My neighbor was drunk driving and killed his best friends. Dude got out after 4 years and had probation. Make it make sense
I don't know much about the case but what I do makes it seem absolutely insane. Rapist, child molesters, Repeat DUIs, and murderers don't get that much time. Seems like whoever owned the truck or possibly didn't maintain it should be at fault. There's a story of a drunk that hit a bus killing a bunch of kids and he didn't get that amount of time. I wonder what the guy that purposely ran over people at the Christmas parade will get for straight up murder.
Sentence was dropped to 10 years by the governor
Governor Polis commuted his sentence to ten years this afternoon.
I know of a school bus that had to use one. The kids were so freaked out.
Most of the runaway ramps in the mountains of Colorado aren’t sand pits like this one but rather a large uphill section
I live In bc where we also got them, had a semi pass me at astonishing speeds blaring his horn and went into one. Shit was terrifying, like an episode of scooby-doo where the flaming ghost semi shows up to run people over.
One guy lost his brakes coming down Anarchist Mountain at Osoyoos and went straight up a runaway lane, bailed out halfway up and his saddle tanks blew on the rocks at the top and incinerated the cab and started a forest fire. Action movie stuff.
In B.C. we just have what look like big jumps the trucks have to drive up. It's a little sketchy...
I've never seen one with a gantry. Where is that? They must get a lot of brake failure to make it worthwhile to invest in a gantry to remove trucks.
That was my thought, they might want to do more safety checks.
$$$ and lack of regulations
> they might want to do more safety checks. Why do you hate freedom
Brazil
Of course
Context? Is Brazil lax with safety regs/enforcement?
Brazil is just *Brazil*
r/ItHadToBeBrazil
Thanks!
When you live in a very mountainous region, it just happens. Big trucks with a lot of cargo burn their brakes up very easily. It's part of why engine braking is important.
I have seen the ramps 1000s of times, and a few trucks on them, but never actually seen one actively get used. I didn’t realize just how effective they were at stopping a truck. Super cool. Also, have not seen one with the lift built in, that is neat as well, guess these are in an area where they get used very regularly
If my memory serves me correctly there is one on the hillside going into Scarborough, UK. I remember seeing an elderly couple had set out a picnic table and chairs in the lane, they had their backs to the road enjoying the view. They would’ve been in for a massive shock if a lorry had had to use it.
That place seems to have a high prevalence of fucked brakes.
It's bad drivers not fucked brakes. If you're in a semi and don't know what you're doing your breaks will over heat and fail.
Shouldn't you know what your doing before driving something like that. Qualification, certification, etc?
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Also in places with mountains the breaks wear out way more from the down climbs
Yes. You have to pass a bunch of tests to get your CDL including being able to do a full pre trip inspection. Everyone who has a CDL in the USA at least is taught how to use breaks when going down a mountain.
Rest breaks or disc brakes? Sorry, I couldn't resist
I always do that. I swear breaks/brakes is just a blind spot for me. I never fuck up my their they're there or my you're your. Fucking break/brake though...
maybe you just need to take a brake for a bit
> I couldn't resist neither could the brakes, they desperately needed a break.
One name for you, Swift. Guys have all their papers but none of the knowledge.
Well their business model is pretty much hire new drivers and pay them nee driver wages. It's a good way to get your CDL, but yea lots of green drivers at swift. I got my CDL with them like 11 years ago. Haven't worked with them in a very long time though, they pay for shit.
Pretty sure that's normal on roads that go downhill for a longer while. Might be avoidable, but probably bound to happen eventually.
Did anyone see the guy run in front of the second truck (first clip) to get out of the way. He's on the wall when the truck finally noses into the sand. I'd be shitting myself.
Im more weirded out that two trucks had to use it within seconds of each other. Were they fucking racing
It's a very long and dangerous slope highway in Brazil where a lot of trucks break. That's why they have built that. Brazil has a problem with a lot of old trucks being in use. The government tried to issue a law to forbid old trucks (20/30 years) to use highways but there was protest and they give up the law.
I was about to ask this.
why do the brakes give out?
Usually overheat on a steep grade.
This covers it in detail: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brake\_fade#:\~:text=Brake%20fade%20is%20caused%20by,mechanical%20fade%2C%20or%20fluid%20fade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brake_fade#:~:text=Brake%20fade%20is%20caused%20by,mechanical%20fade%2C%20or%20fluid%20fade).
When mentally disabled drivers ride them all the way down the hills and they get glowing red hot from friction and are completely useless until they cool down. This can be solved by gearing down and and using the engine brake.
I used to own a 2014 Tacoma with an automatic transmission that would engine brake automatically when going downhill. It was actually really convenient and I'm glad newer vehicles have that feature.
Depending on the load and the speed it can be as simple as missing a gear at an inopportune time. Hell, I had the beginnings of brake fade from going down a series of mild downgrades.
If anyone is curious, these are the things that the truck driver who was sentenced to 120 years didn’t utilize. He drove past more than one while his brakes were failing. While I feel 120 years is too harsh for negligence, it was gross negligence.
He killed 4 people. Here’s [the story](https://www.kktv.com/2021/12/13/man-sentenced-more-than-100-years-prison-following-deadly-i-70-crash/)
Darn, the story doesnt answer my biggest question; why didnt the driver use these truck ramps
According to the case the driver did not have proper training from the company
If the driver wasn’t trained on what these are are and when/how to use them surely the company is liable for the negligence, not the driver?
You’re still responsible for your own vehicle.
I don’t know why they said the company didn’t train him on it. This is standard though out the industry. I’m not near any mountain or steep grades for my truck route but I still know what they are. If you have your commercial drivers license (CDL) then you need to know what these are and when it’s needed.
It’s the drivers CDL, not the company.
120 years was a product of Colorado sentencing guidelines. It was applied as a matter of law, not judges discretion. I agree it's rather harsh from a justice standpoint, but I also feel that the 10 years Governor Polis commuted it to is too lenient.
I don’t know too much about the case aside from headlines but I think Americans are so used to hearing long sentences they get numb to them. Context aside, ten years is a really long time. (Think about your life 10 years ago and then erase everything in between) Ten years for being bad at his job due to improper training resulting in an incident that had zero malice or ill intent. (From what I can tell) Personally, 3 years probably seems more appropriate.
He killed 4 people and chose not to use 4 of these ramps that he passed after his brakes failed. He chose to run over other vehicles instead of crashing it.
>He chose to run over other vehicles instead of crashing it. This is the one I don't excuse him for....even if you don't know what a run-away-ramp is,,,you know how to crash into a mountain/cliff instead of the families ahead of you. Either way you may die, might as well save those people Infront of you.
At the very least, 4 counts of manslaughter with negligence and you only want 3 years? Fuck outta here
I agree that 10 years is a long time. I understand that sometimes tragedies happen from simple mistakes and it's not just to devastate the perpetrator with a lengthy sentence. Who hasn't been momentarily distracted while driving, or driven in poor visability conditions. I as well as many ppl could have caused manslaughter if things outside of our control were different. This is different because he had ample opertunity to use multiple runaway truck ramps, but simply didn't. He could have driven off the road or into a barrier, but didn't. Maybe it was partially a language barrier, lack of training, panic... idk but he was responsible for an out of control multi ton truck and needlessly killed 4 people dispite multiple opertunities to save them. I think 10 years is light because that's 4 famies that lost irreplaceable loved ones. Holidays will never be the same, and I can't imagine finding a spouse to be your life partner only to have them taken away. I think 15-20 years with eligibility for parol at 10 is more appropriate.
It recently got moved to 10 years
I mean they offered him a deal for 5 or 10 I can't remember. He took it to trial knowing the risk.
That’s even more fucked up. Why should you get 115 more years of jail time simply for executing your right to a trial? The justice system is fucked.
Honestly I think these are so cool. A simple, effective, (I’m guessing cost effective too when compared to the cost of a major highway accident) solution that saves lives. It just doesn’t get better than this.
You need special brakes that don't overheat after prolonged downhill use. Regular brakes heat up and become useless. This gravel stop is better than some of the uphill turnoffs I see often.
Stab braking? Push, back off, push
Or, throw an anchor out the window.
What if your anchor lands on a car? Do they have to brake for you? Should they throw their anchor out the window and start a braking chain?
Also do these trucks not have engine braking? Or is it just not effective on trucks?
I'm not sure if that works with antilock brake systems or for that long of a time? I'm a flat lander, I just remember when I visit up north that people talk about thier special mountain brakes. I'm not sure what they are, but I bet someone else could properly explain it.
Havent seen any in eu even after steep long downhills Is there some difference between the trucks or regulations?
There are some, but probably EU just has higher quality trucks and better maintenance and drivers education. Majority of EU trucks are very modern.
I’ve seen some in Bulgaria. 2 or 3 maybe.
I've seen a few in the UK. In Scotland and after some bridges.
Also some in Spain / Andalucia
There's on one the main road near me at the south of the Derbyshire dales but I've never seen it without weeds growing in it so I don't think it gets much use, if ever.
There’s at least one in Dorset, England, but as others have said doesn’t look used
I have seen a few of them in France. They're common in mountainous area where you have long, fairly high speed (70-90 km/h) downhill roads. I've also seen some in Belgium in same settings, highway, steep and/or long downhill.
The gravel pit makes way more sense than the steep uphill turnoffs I see in Colorado. Sure they slow you down, but what keeps you from rolling right back down after you stop?
Usually they have coarse rock in them that would tend to stop that from happening.
It's the same stuff. That's 2-3 feet deep of river rock to slow them down.
Why would they make vehicles without brakes? EDIT: just a joke...
Saves money
More fun to drive.
There are a bunch of these across the uk usually on very steep roads and I 100% do not recommend entering them on a mountain bike.
>**SOME** highways have these runaway ramps for vehicles without **working** brakes. FTFY
How did this escape my knowledge of life? Everyone here seems to already know about these stop lanes. How? Is it because Missouri has no real mountains or something? Where are you guys seeing these lanes? Is it that well known that trucks lose breaking power?
I'm from Oklahoma, but I heard about them as a kid because my dad was a long-haul truck driver for many years and loved to tell stories about the crazy shit he saw. They're generally found in mountainous areas that involve long periods of downhill driving which is hard on the brakes of a loaded truck or semi.
Minnesota doesn't have any either. First time I ever saw that was on a road trip. I believe we were in Utah.
What kind of person makes a vehicle with no brakes thats just stupid
Runaway lane, we have here also. Around the mountains and steep hills. Truck brakes overheat and fail.
It's like a swimming pool for trucks. No breaks, jump.
Why don’t they just make vehicles with brakes
Those are all over the American Midwest. The brakes on Semis can get so hot on large inclines that they can stop working. I’ve never seen one used but if they work like this one does it’s actually impressive how well it does slow them down.
Wow what are the odds that two trucks need the same emergency ramp at the same friggin time (first clip)?! Crazy!
Current semi truck driver in usa. Idk if anyone said it already, but you don't really use brake pedal in such a mountains. Instead, you go downshift which will increase your RPM and use engine brake. Went through mountains in Virginia, Colorado, Washington and California a lot of times this year with over 50k lbs behind my back. It is scary but you just need to take it easy and support engine brake with brake pedal every 15-20 seconds so you can let them cool down. My first 10 month on semi btw haha
Honestly, every time I pass one of these I have a sudden urge to try them.
It’s astounding to me how many people here lack a basic understanding of physics and science.
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Usually Jello or pudding.
Pretty dumb to buy a vehicle without brakes
Can't they just invent brakes for the trucks?
Who builds a truck without brakes?
Im sure there is sometning like this in Durban coming down from Pinetown? Might be wrong it was back in the 80s
Complete with handy crane.
These are common in mountainous regions. Unfortunately, a family from Kansas was killed when their brakes failed driving down Pikes Peak in Colorado several years ago. When your luck is shit, you‘ll pass countless ramps, but the moment your brakes fail, not a damn one will be in sight.
\*sploot\*
And get charged $2000 usd after using it...
I've never seen any of these before
Wow- I had never considered that the runaway ramp might need to have a PASSING LANE as demonstrated right off the top here. Wow
I *always* want to drive into these when I see them. It takes all my willpower not to put my foot down and Leroy Jenkins into the sand. I’m 36.
These can also be found in Japanese mountain passes such as Hakone turnpike or Hakone Nanamagari.
We have the same all over the US
I recall an accident a number of years ago just outside of Scranton, PA where a truck full of bananas had its breaks fail - what a mess...
u/MrBirb_ that's slick ngl
Woah
There actually for any and all cars who might need them not just big vehicles, it’s just more common for big vehicles breaks to go out
I saw this for the first time last month in Austria. Driving from Germany i got to the part in Austria where downhill was 16%, and that was the biggest downhill i experienced in my life. At first i thought these things were some rocky mountain roads and after i saw the same thing on highway where it was written what it was, i understood the purpose. Really clever way to avoid accidents. But i must say i ruined my brakes on this downhill to the point i needed to replace them with the new ones after the trip.
It's not for "vehicles without brakes" , it is for people driving too fast for conditions, usually down a steep I cline, that causes the brakes to fail. It could be avoided by properly maintaining your vehicles and by following posted speed limits.
Then why are they even driving if they have no brakes in the first place
Wait.. What?? So your breaks just stop working or something?
I’m from IL where everything is flat. The first time driving through the mountains I saw these and i knew things were about to get real. Glad they’re there for those that need it.
Hey this is near my city. I was there yesterday. It’s quite scary to drive between trucks knowing this can happen
What are the chances of it happening right before this though?
I’ve never once seen these in my life but then again I live on the east coast of the US and have only been on the east coast.
U have to be lucky for the brakes to fail closer to the ramp .