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One Ice Road Truckers comments -
About 800 truckers set out with their first load last year, but by the end of the winter only about 200 were still going. Almost 40 truckers have lost their lives in the 80 winters the ice road has been built, the last in 2006, and each year brings its string of chilling accidents and nerve-shattering near misses.
On the most dangerous patches of the route – where the ice is most uneven – the drivers keep one hand on the door handle ready to make a quick getaway if their truck suddenly goes down.
You’re driving a big load on a giant sheet of ice, you can make out the shores of the lakes and you realise you’re driving over where people were fishing just a few weeks before.
The ice is about 20in thick when you first head out, although it can get up to 5ft thick in the middle of winter, and our trucks can pack as much as 100,000lb fully loaded. You have scary skids all the time but I’ve never gone down yet. When it’s my time to go, it’s my time to go, right? Accidents happen all the time.”
Each one-way trip takes about 20 hours – or more, depending on the weather – as the trucks can travel at a maximum of only about 22mph or the increased pressure from their wheels would crack the ice.
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