Text 18791, 58 rader
Skriven 2007-08-09 22:44:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av SEAN DENNIS
Ärende: Re: Ice trucks
======================
-=> Quoting Sean Dennis to Carol Shenkenberger <=-

 SD> You can watch it at history.com/iceroadtruckers

Thanks for the link. Now I've finally seen it.

I have to make a few comments though. The truckers hammed it up for
the cameras and the History Channel sexed it up with the constant
repetition about going through the ice.

The greatest enemy up there isn't the danger of going through the
ice or the fear of it; it's boredom. The boredom of driving 15 MPH
in the dark on the same route for 75 days straight.

There has only been one fatality up there, ever. When Wayne, the
scuba diver, talked about finding 39 bodies that was over his whole
career, everywhere, from all causes, most of which are drunken
summer boaters, the most recent one being Neekha's stupid cousin who
tried to swim to shore, several kilometers away, while stoned, when
his boat ran out of gas.
  
The main player on the winter ice road is Robinson's Trucking Ltd.
who hardly got mentioned at all. Yellowknife was connected by road
to the rest of the world in 1967 and Dick Robinson started here in
1968 with one truck. The company grew. His sons Marvin (who was
interviewed briefly) and Donny run RTL today. They own an airline, a
helicopter company, 900 pieces of heavy equipment: tractors,
trailers and road building equipment and contract up to 450 more
during peak season. They have been building that ice road every year
since 1984 and running up to 450 of their own trucks on it. They
loose on average one piece of equipment through the ice every other
year but have had only one fatality since 1984 as the drivers always
get out of the vehicle in time. And usually the accident is in very
shallow water at a blow-out near the shoreline. However, two years
ago a Robinson grandson went through the ice in deep water and
drowned. He was driving a light snow plow truck grooming the ice
early in the winter before the road was open to traffic.

The ice road engineers, builders and truckers are a cautious, safe
group using the best tools available including sonar and radar.
 
The History Channel was totally sensationalist and twisted a lot of
facts to suit their purpose. Like Wayne's 39 bodies. For example,
the average winter temp there is -30 C with occasional dips to
-40/45; the -60 referred to was with the wind chill factor added on.
And so on.




Cheers

YK Jim


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