Nevada Highway Patrol Crackdown and A Train Wreck

Yesterday, October 21, we left Mesquite, Nevada for Fontana, California to deliver our trucks.

We got about 15 miles out of town when I got pulled over by the Highway Patrol. Had my permit with me this time for this trip. While I waited 30 minutes beside the road, for whatever checks the police do, Joe was stopped ahead of me waiting for me to tell him when we could go again.

Once I was released the patrolman passed me and quickly turned his lights on. I thought he was stopping Joe but he stopped an oversized load instead. The Nevada Highway Patrol are making quite a presence on the highways.

We got into Fontana in the afternoon and delivered our trucks to the Volvo dealership yard. Afterwards we had to go to the Volvo office and see if a guy we worked with was still there. He used to be the representative we dealt with at Freightliner years ago. He was still at Volvo but in a different capacity and loving his job.

Later in the evening we drive 45 miles to Garden Grove to see our California daughter for a while after she got off work. We had a great visit. It is good to see our kids face to face. We text them or talk on the phone but face to face is the best.

Getting back to the hotel - midnight our time - we got to the corner of Milliken and Gausti between the two T/A Truckstops and saw a tow truck, police lights flashing, a huge gathering of people, and a train vs semi wreck.

A Martin Trucking Company trainee had stopped on the railroad tracks. The trailer was cut in half, boxes were strewn all over the ground and the train was stopped. The train engine was about half a mile further from the wreck when it got stopped. Joe and I went to look at the train engine. Pieces of the trailer were embedded in the front of the train engine and its windshield was shattered. More boxes of freight had been carried all the way up with the train and lay around like offerings. Lunchables had exploded out of their boxes.

Homeless people were the nights scavangers. Scurrying around and picking up as many of the unopened cases of Lunchables as they could carry. A feast was before them.

Woe to the Martin Transportation trainer who was in charge of the trainee. I wonder if either one will still have a job after this.

The train's Engineer and Conductor had clocked in only an hour previous to the wreck. They would be going back home as soon as the clearing crew showed up.

This morning you would never have known there had been an incident. No debris, train gone, not a piece of trailer or glass left to hint at last nights events.

Laundry today, replacment of a tail light bulb on our pickup, FedEx papers and logs to dispatch offices, a trip to the post office to send off money to Oregon for Joe's ticket last week, take a look at the trashed trucks we get to take to Las Vegas tomorrow, and a much needed nap were what we did today.



-- Post From My iPhone