Sunday, January 18, 2026
Another truck accident
I am now having trouble documenting what I read about this truck accident, and what I said about it. One guy, on this site, said, in essence, Why West Branch? Why are all these accidents happening on this stretch of road? So I related to him what I've said earlier on this site; I worked at Scattergood; there was a cemetery there; somebody told me that they'd actually moved I-80 because of the cemetery; that that put a curve and a hill in the road; and that that curve could be the only one on I-80 in the whole state of Iowa.
I don't want to give Scattergood a bad name, but I figure if accidents keep happening there, getting at the reason would be good and the truckers will surely spread the word out amongst themselves, watch out for that curve just east of West Branch. But here's the truth: I have no solid evidence that they're even connected. The "mass casualty event" of around Dec. 12, which put 20 people in hospital but didn't kill anyone, was somewhere east of West Branch and I'm still not sure where; there were accidents on both sides of the road. In some six-mile stretch between West Branch and Springdale, though that distance is only about twelve, and there are only so many places it could be. For the truck fire it says "mile marker 257" but I swear the fire departments are probably the only ones who know where the heck that could be.
Somewhat disturbing is the implication by that commenter that these two were not the only ones, that perhaps there's been a string of them with "West Branch" attached to their report. If so all the more reason to get the word out: there's a hill here, and a curve in the road, watch out, slow down!"+
A commenter below me was somewhat inarticulate but said that it was simple: the wind hit the road differently on that stretch of the road, for most of the road you go straight into the wind, but in that little stretch it hits you at an angle and that really matters when it's raining and freezing at the same time.
Put two and two together and you can see why accidents keep happening. The fact is that when the road is straight for 100 miles you get lulled into thinking it's always straight or that the weather you are experiencing is not worth slowing down for. Slowing down is the one surefire antidote and perhaps they need speed limit signs getting everyone to slow down a bit at that hill. Or perhaps the hill is not even part of the picture. But whatever it is, the road is getting very croweded out there, and there have been a few casualties besides the ones I'm showing you.
