Truckers on Oregon: 'You can't wait to get out of the state so you can relax'
PENDLETON, Ore. (AP) — Oregon is experimenting with salting roads along a few state border crossings to de-ice them, but it has no plans to apply rock salt to Interstate 84, where a tour bus crash last month killed nine people.
Most neighboring states use rock salt on their roads, so drivers may face icier roads as they cross into Oregon, which has cost and environmental reasons for relying on sand and less-corrosive magnesium chloride.
Salt lowers the freezing temperature of water. But rock salt also rusts out vehicles and bridges, and Oregon doesn't want rock salt winding up in the Columbia Basin, the East Oregonian reported.
The Oregon State Police say the Dec. 30 tour bus crash happened on a stretch of road with ice and snow patches, but they have said it may take weeks to determine what caused it.
The crash, though, has raised the question of salting Oregon highways.
"Am I in the minority that feels like there is a moral obligation to this?" said Oregon truck driver Larry Phelps. "At some point we have to see that this is costing lives. I'm tired of seeing cars turned upside down on my route."
Phelps, 62, said the state is a running joke among truckers: "You can't wait to get out of the state so you can relax."
As an alternative to sodium chloride, or salt, Oregon uses magnesium chloride. That lowers the freezing point of water to about 25 degrees, while traditional rock salt lowers it to about 15 degrees. But the magnesium chloride is also 70 percent less corrosive than salt.
After numerous wrecks involving cars driving in from salting states, Oregon has begun five-year tests of applying salt on 11 miles of Interstate 5 near the California border and 120 miles of U.S. 95 as it cuts through southeastern Oregon between Nevada and Idaho.
Department of Transportation spokesman Tom Strandberg said, however, that salting Interstate 84 at the Idaho border "is not on the horizon."
"We can't just go out and begin using salt," said department District Manager Marilyn Holt. "Oregon is a very environmentally conscious state with very tough groundwater laws."
She said extensive salting would mean expenses for equipment and retrofits.
Strandberg said ODOT applies both sand and magnesium chloride to known trouble spots — curves, inclines and places where ice tends to accumulate — and gives priority to highly frequented roads. A few hours before the crash, the department had put sand on that stretch of I-84.
"Unfortunately, we just don't have the money to hit every spot," he said. "It's often a judgment call by local crews."
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Information from: East Oregonian, http://www.eastoregonian.info
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
Horsepuckey... as my gran used to say. Â I drove truck in every state, (and most of the provinces of Canada,) for 22 years, including those using salt for ice control. Â I encountered dangerous conditions is every state when snow or ice was present, with, or without salt. Â Try driving three solid days on rutted ice in WY or TX - far worse than Oregon. Â Come on drivers - large trucks or small vehicles, when it gets icy - or conditions even hint at it, an intelligent/responsible person slows down. Â As a career trucker AND a private person driving a motor vehicle, I've always been glad we didn't use salt on our roads.Tina, I've only read your accounts of the accident, but from my experience and your description, I would suspect the driver of the bus didn't pay attention and didn't drive according to present conditions. Â Â
We witnessed that accident with the bus and had to fight to stay out of it. The state says they don't know what happened. We do and we have told them as well. From what we could see, that left lane had not be graveled, it was visibly icy. The right hand lane was clearer. As for the gravel, just a minute or two before we passed the only snow plow we saw on that stretch, a car passed us, throwing gravel upward and causing a chip in our windshield. I believe there is a whole lot more to the stories than what we hear. As far as expense, how do you put a price on a life. Just prior to the bus accident we saw a pickup with a trailer that appeared to have rolled it's load, watched an SUV slide off the road into the parking area of the weigh scales and at milepost 191 there had been a fatal accident a little earlier. The road was bad.
Oregon isnt the joke, the truckers are... I drive these roads all the time and never have any issues, yet constantly i am getting passed by big rigs speeding, sometimes upwards of 15-20 mph over the limit.. Â Everyone is in such a hurry to die, slow down & share the road.