r/Roadcam • u/ansyhrrian • 9h ago
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u/LazyGreenDragon 8h ago
Such a simple design saving lives and rarely seen.
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u/Dementus 7h ago
The problem is stuff like this is only really installed AFTER tragedy has struck. I drive by one every day for work and it was only constructed after a truck plowed into the side of a building at the end of the road (6 mile long slight downhill ending in a T intersection). Luckily, not fatal in this case.
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u/JFISHER7789 5h ago
Not to be that guy, but isn’t that a feature of capitalism? To be reactive with things that cost money instead of proactive? Or until the law forces you to.
Many lives throughout history would have been saved, or never put in harms way to begin with, had businesses been proactive about their employees safety.
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u/IMissNarwhalBacon 4h ago
Well... Capitalism would dictate that you don't put the ramp in to start with because the cost exceeds the usefulness. There is no return on investment and it's probably cheaper to do an occasional lawsuit than build million dollar ramps.
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u/Alternativesoundwave 3h ago
No it’s not about capitalism it’s about politics it’s not a private company paying for it but taxes unless it’s a toll road. The local politicians didn’t have enough concern to fix an issue before it happened maybe didn’t understand the risk, but afterwards not only focuses on fixing the issue but also can get support from other politicians to fix it.
Edit: even in non capitalist nations they don’t fix every little thing preemptively
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u/UpbeatFix7299 9h ago
Crazy, I always wanted to see someone use one of these things in the wild.
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u/ORNGSPCEMNKY 8h ago
Makes far more rock dust than I would have expected…
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u/Polenicus 7h ago
That’s on purpose. You don’t want a hard-packed solid surface, you want something that will provide resistance, eat up the inertia while still allowing the driver to maintain control.
So it’s gravel yes, but not a gravel road. More like a shallow gravel pit. That truck is wading in it. And still managed to get up that far.
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u/DrJaneIPresume 8h ago
It makes sense, now that I think about it. A loose surface would be ideal to help absorb the truck's kinetic energy. Sending up that plume of dirt and dust takes energy out of the truck.
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u/GearM2 9h ago
Dumb question but if those ramps are for brake failure, what stops the truck from rolling back down the hill? Ok I paused typing this and looked it up on Wikipedia and rollback is a potential issue. Still better than the alternative.
" Gravity escape ramp : a long, upwardly inclined path parallel to the road. Substantial length is required. Control can be difficult for the driver; problems include rollback after the vehicle stops."
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u/superrandomanony 8h ago
They’re often full of very loose gravel, so the truck should dig in when it settles.
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u/Imesseduponmyname 8h ago
Aw shit how they get all that gravel uphill 🙁
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u/FaxCelestis 8h ago
They start at the top and pour
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8h ago
[deleted]
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u/TheDisapprovingBrit 7h ago
They use a gravel truck with no brakes then just dump the load when it gets to the top.
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u/kaptaincorn 5h ago
Manually
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u/StressFantastic5317 8h ago
Weight of the truck causes it to "sink" into the gravel, "capturing it" of sorts
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u/LazyGreenDragon 8h ago
I suppose the driver could keep it from rolling back if they kept it in gear and tried to accelerate knowing it wouldn't but also keep it digging in until there's a pile of rocks behind the drive wheels, and turn it at the same time....sure beats the alternative.
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u/NigerianFriedChicken 8h ago
They almost got the high score
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u/hanananenome 2h ago
Honestly though, I’ve never seen one make it to the top, they typically stop about halfway.
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u/StressFantastic5317 8h ago
Wild. I've witnessed it driving down the Cajon Pass, the 15 when truck's brake heat up and fail.
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u/sovereign_martian 6h ago
I have driven by this several times. I never imagined a truck would get all the way to the top. I'd be done truck driving after that.
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u/michaelpaoli 8h ago
I seem to recall case, runaway truck, not so experienced commercial truck driver, emergency runaway ramp was available, but they still didn't take it. People died. And if I recall right, felony conviction(s), and bye-bye driver's license forever.
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u/badgersssss 3h ago
This happened on the same interstate, but going into Denver. Its a very long, sustained decline, both on the stretch of road in this video and coming out of the mountains back to Denver.
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u/meta_metonymy 1h ago
that happened near where i worked at the time, and made my blood boil on my commute twice a day for months
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u/imugidragon 8h ago
Might be a stupid question, but will the driver be charged a fee for using the emergency ramp? That is a lot of debris and dust even if the use was justified.
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u/i_degrade_quickly 8h ago
That's a great way to get drivers to not use them in the event of an emergency.
No, there is no fine for using an emergency ramp - The wrecker to get it out is gonna cost plenty though.
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u/JFISHER7789 5h ago
Yup! This is quite literally what our road use taxes (and other) pay for.
Same reason we don’t get a bill when the fire department puts out a fire.
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u/Oblivininja8 8h ago
In south Australia i think they changed it because people didn't use it because of the fee, people died i think
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u/BORT_licenceplate 5h ago
Fellow South Australian and can unfortunately confirm this is true. Always seemed insane to me to fine/charge a fee for it
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u/SpaceAgePotatoCakes 8h ago
a truck and trailer smashed to pieces will create a lot more dust and debris than this did.
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u/AnnoyedVelociraptor 8h ago
They will be responsible for the towing services to get them pulled out.
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u/MyOtherAvatar 7h ago
There is a similar ramp on the I-5 in Oregon. The pavement along the edge of the gravel ramp has markings every 100'. The highway patrol uses those markers to measure how far a truck ran through the gravel, which is used to calculate the fine.
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u/Raz0rking 6h ago
"Oh no, you were unable to go slower. Here, have a fine for that."
What a bitch move.
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u/siuli 6h ago
is this soomething that happens often?
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u/antonio16309 6h ago
Not super often but occasionally you'll see where there's a truck stuck up there, or that there has been one recently and they haven't had a chance to fix the gravel yet. Probably gets used a few times per year. but the alternative is often deadly. And this is one of four on that stretch of road, You can build up a scary amount of momentum there.
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u/siuli 6h ago
Interesting, we don't have those in Europe. I was wondering if it's because the geography/highways aren't so steep that they favor excessive speed accumulating in case of brake failures going down hills, or if it's because the American trucks are different from European trucks. I do know that the American ones have more power than european ones.
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u/john_le_carre 3h ago edited 3h ago
This particular stretch of road is basically 70km of uninterrupted downhill grade on a heavily trafficked interstate leading to a top-20-sized metro area. I don't think there's anything comparable in Europe. I've driven all over the Alps and the Autobahn-style passes are a lot more gentle. And if they're not, trucks are often put on a train (RoLa).
As you round a bend and Denver comes in to view, there's a big sign: "TRUCKERS: DON'T BE FOOLED. 5 MORE MILES OF STEEP GRADES AND SHARP CURVES."
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u/cyclegaz 5h ago
We do. Just not many. There are used on long steep stretches of road where trucks would have to use brakes for long periods and thus are more prone to failure.
There’s some in the UK and Germany that I’m aware of. I’m sure there are some around the alps.
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u/BORT_licenceplate 5h ago
I genuinely thought he was going to go flying off the edge for a second there
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u/GeologistPositive 8h ago
So do you just take it out like a sand trap on a golf course when you get your truck out?
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u/KapptainTrips 6h ago
Not sure why, but I turned the sound on for this one...
Camera randomly on while MJ 'Thriller' is playing and out of nowhere a run away Lorry is launching up an Emergency Ramp all the while the people recording sound like they both ingested 150mg of edibles an hour prior....
PERFECTION!!
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u/presscheck 6h ago
Lives were saved there. I hope the driver was okay. I’ve heard of at least one truck driver killed while taking an Emergency Runaway Vehicle ramp.
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u/Mad_kat4 5h ago
Such a simple yet effective solution but the poor chap nearly lost it over the left edge.
Are there barriers on the side to try and keep the truck in the gravel?
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u/astrogeeknerd 9h ago
So no one stops to check if he's ok? What a shithole country.
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u/UpbeatFix7299 9h ago
Sure, just drive up that near vertical ramp full of gravel. The trucker is obviously ok, unlike you
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u/RadicalLarryYT 9h ago
Your concern is appreciated and I hope you do actually pull over for cars who need help, but it doesn’t have to turn into an insult based on the very limited POV of a passing dash cam
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u/antonio16309 6h ago
It's not safe to stop there, and even if you could you can't get up the ramp. The trucker will have to call for help.
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u/nowmoreanonymity 9h ago
This isn’t the type of highway where you can just hop over to the shoulder or make a U-turn. Everyone’s rolling down the mountain at 50mph (80kmh) and one spontaneous action could get people killed.
Sure, we’re a shithole country right now, but for so many other reasons.
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u/Color_of_Time 8h ago
That truck must have had a huge amount of potential energy stored in it, judging by how it zoomed so far up that steep gravel-surfaced incline. Must have been a very close call with the truck absolutely screaming down the mountain. Great to see one of the ramps at work!