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My Life
Through a Broken Windshield
By Mel
McConaghy
JUST ANOTHER TRIP TO THE
MINE
When I was on my regular run into the Chini Gold Mine in
Northern B.C., I would leave Prince George late in the afternoon. I
did this to miss to the logging trucks on the Finley Forest access
road which is 160 km north of Prince George on the Hart Highway.
The barge that carried the trucks across Williston Lake stopped
running at 4 pm so if I arrived after they quit I didn’t have to
worry about pulling out to let them by.
On one trip I got about 250 km in on the bush road just below
the Messalinka River when it came over the radio that a truck
hauling cyanide into the mine was broke down in the middle of the
road and traffic couldn’t get by. It was around nine pm, so I
pulled into a turn out about a mile from where the truck was
sitting and waited to see what was going to happen.
Anytime one of the drivers including myself, offered some advice
or tried to make a suggestion on the radio, the driver of the
broken down the truck would get a little indignant, so after a
while we just kept quiet and poured ourselves another coffee.
Around midnight it was apparent that nothing was going to be
rolling in before morning so I climbed into the bunk and went to
bed.
Next morning I woke up around six and listened to the chatter on
the radio. Another truck, owned by the same company had arrived on
the scene and the driver went down to see if he could help.
It was lunchtime before a logger came down from the bush with a
CAT to skid the truck and trailer out of the way. By the time it
was clear there were at least four other trucks piled up behind me
waiting to get through.
As I got up alongside the broken down truck I stopped and asked
if they'd checked the emergency shut off. The driver was quite
indignant as he informed me that he'd checked everything he could
think of the night before - so I carried on.
A while later I heard on the radio that they finally got
the truck going and the road was clear. When someone asked what the
problem had been he was told that the emergency trip had
inadvertently shut the engine down.
I felt pretty smug (in an “I told you so” kind of way) as I went
on down the road. I knew they had a 12-V 71 Detroit diesel in that
old Freightliner cab-over and on rough roads it wasn't uncommon for
that engine’s emergency shut off to trip, shutting down the engine.
Old Blue, the truck I had at the time, had an 8-V 71-T Detroit in
it and I’d been there - done that.
I’d lost a lot of time sitting by the side of the road so when I
got to the mine the following afternoon I quickly unloaded and
headed for home. It was too late in the week for another turn but
that’s trucking and to be honest, there’s nothing wrong with a long
weekend at home now and then.
All things considered, this driver wasted a lot of his time and
ours that day but hopefully he learned something from the
experience. Personally I’ve found that at times like that the
advice you get from other drivers is usually based on the best
source possible - their own experience. | 